World Immunization Week 2022 — “Long Life for All”

Highlights:

The ongoing hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic have very well signified the importance of vaccination
In a global drive to promote mass vaccination against various health crises, the World Immunization Week 2022 is celebrated from 24th to 30th April
The 2022 theme for the global campaign is “Long Life for All”

World Immunization Week 2022 is celebrated from 24th to 30th April to emphasize the collective action necessary for promoting vaccines’ use and help protect everyone from various diseases ().

Immunization
Protect your child from various deadly diseases by giving the vaccinations at the right age. This tool helps you schedule the vaccinations of your child.

‘World Immunization Week is celebrated in the last week of April from 24th to 30th April to signify the necessity for vaccination in the fight against various deadly diseases.’
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What is Immunity?

The immune system is a vital body defense system that helps protect against infections. The body’s immune cells act as front-line soldiers to kill potentially harmful pathogens through their potent immune defenses — immunity ().

Although the body’s immunity protects against various infections, it may sometimes turn against the body’s cells and tissues, resulting in something called autoimmunity, thereby destructing the body’s organs and overall functioning ().

Adult Immunization
Adult immunization is needed for adults whose mandatory childhood vaccines were either missed out or offer less protection, and to guard against new diseases.

What is Immunization?

Immunization, also known as vaccination, is the process of triggering the body’s immune response through the introduction of the vaccine into it. The process of vaccination works parallel to your body’s natural immunity (immune cells get activated when there is an exposure to disease) ().

Vaccines contain similar antigens (pathogenic toxins or foreign particles) but of lesser virulence (killed or weakened) to activate the body’s immunity, without even being affected by the actual disease ().

Immunization has helped reduce the death rate among children by half. Over 1.1 billion children are immunized over the past two decades, thereby saving 4 to 5 million lives annually ().

Significance of Vaccination

The root of vaccination emerged from the practice of “variolation”, in the 15th century (). The first vaccine was developed in 1796 against smallpox. Vaccination drives have led to the suppression of various deadly diseases like smallpox and polio for centuries ().

With growing witnesses of the life benefits from vaccinations, the advancements in technology and global vaccine drives throughout the centuries have now upheld the use of mRNA vaccines () in curbing serious ailments like COVID-19— crafting a long immunization history ().

India: The Most Pro-Vaccine Country in The World
Vaccine hesitancy was 12-13 percent last year. However, this year, only 2 percent do not wanna get vaccinated against Covid-19.

World Immunization Week

The 2022 theme for World Immunization Week is “Long Life for All” — which strives for global awareness of the role of vaccination in protecting and ensuring a long, healthy life for our loved ones ().

The critical times presented by COVID-19 have devastated pretty much every medical care service, including routine immunization ().

Nearly 23 million children were reported to have missed their basic vaccination in 2020— the highest record since 2009. This commands urgent mediations to combat the missed out vaccination and bestow life-saving vaccine benefits to millions out there ().

The World Health Organization (WHO) encourages everyone to uphold the vaccines and immunization awareness through necessary support and guidance from the governments and implement immunization programs ().

Promote Mass Vaccination Campaign

The international public health agency — the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO — which works to improve the health of the American people) collaborate with different countries this year to celebrate the 20th annual Vaccination Week in the Americas (VWA) and the 11th World Immunization Week (WIW) under the call to action “Are you fully vaccinated? Get all your shots.” ()

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — a public–private global health partnership (that strives to increase immunization access in poor countries), has also hosted an online platform “VaccinesWork” as a gesture toward the World Immunization Week 2022 (). The global movement ensures the end of the vaccine inequity and the dissemination of accurate news on global health, immunology, and cultural/societal impacts of vaccination (to overcome fake “infodemic”witnessed during this pandemic) (). Several other organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and comparatives are advancing this mass vaccination drive to protect lives from over 25 vaccine-preventable diseases (,).

The WHO has also designed various awareness resources in six UN languages for people to share and edit, using hashtags #Long Life For Alland#Vaccines4Life (,).

Hence, vaccination is promoted throughout the world as a cornerstone to achieving universal health coverage for all ().

This World Immunization Week, get along with the mass promotion of vaccination for protecting your loved ones.

References :

World Immunization Week 2022 - (https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-immunization-week/2022)
International Day of Immunology | Autoimmunity – When your immune system turns on you - (https://www.immunology.org/events/world-immunology-day-the-crick-autoimmunity-when-your-immune-system-turns-you)
What Is Immunization? - (https://immunize.ca/what-immunization)
World Immunization Week 2022 - (https://www.worldimmunizationweek.org/)
Vaccination Week in the Americas 2022 - (https://www.paho.org/en/campaigns/vaccination-week-americas-2022)
World Immunization Week 2022: Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance on the equitable and sustainable use of vaccines - (https://www.news-medical.net/news/20220427/World-Immunization-Week-2022-Gavi-The-Vaccine-Alliance-on-the-equitable-and-sustainable-use-of-vaccines.aspx)
World Immunization Week 2022 - (https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/immunization/world-immunization-week/index.html)
World Immunization Week 2022: #Long Life For All - (https://www.unicef.org/kosovoprogramme/press-releases/world-immunization-week-2022-long-life-all)

Source-Medindia