State of the World's Vaccines and Immunization

by World Health Organization

This latest edition of State of the World's Vaccines and Immunization highlights the immense progress made in global immunization since the mid-1990s. These achievements include the near-eradication of polio worldwide as well as dramatic reductions in the incidence of measles and maternal and neonatal tetanus in some of the lowest-income countries. This report also charts progress in the development and introduction of new life-saving vaccines that have the potential to save millions of lives each year. However, the report also points out that many children have yet to benefit from these achievements. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, only about 50% of children are immunized during their first year of life. The report highlights obstacles to equitable world-wide access to effective and safe immunization and how these can be overcome.

111 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2003

About the author

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health. It was established on 7 April 1948, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHO is a member of the United Nations Development Group. Its predecessor, the Health Organization, was an agency of the League of Nations.

The constitution of the World Health Organization had been signed by 61 countries on 22 July 1946, with the first meeting of the World Health Assembly finishing on 24 July 1948. It incorporated the Office international d'hygiène publique and the League of Nations Health Organization. Since its creation, it has played a leading role in the eradication of smallpox. Its current priorities include communicable diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, Ebola, malaria and tuberculosis; the mitigation of the effects of non-communicable diseases; sexual and reproductive health, development, and aging; nutrition, food security and healthy eating; occupational health; substance abuse; and driving the development of reporting, publications, and networking.

The WHO is responsible for the World Health Report, a leading international publication on health, the worldwide World Health Survey, and World Health Day (7 April of every year)