With decades of experience from working to eradicate polio, Rotary members can play a key role in publicizing the power of vaccines. World Immunization Week, 24-30 April, gives Rotary and Rotaract clubs an opportunity to raise awareness of the part that vaccines play in saving lives — as well as of the critical need to continue supporting global polio vaccination for children and other life-saving vaccines for all.
World Immunization Week – celebrated every year in the last week of April – aims to highlight the collective action needed and to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease.
Immunization saves millions of lives every year and is widely recognized as one of the world’s most successful health interventions. Yet, there are still nearly 20 million children in the world today who are not getting the vaccines they need, and many miss out on vital vaccines during adolescence, adulthood and into old age.
The World Health Organization (WHO) works with countries across the globe to raise awareness of the value of vaccines and immunization and ensures that governments obtain the necessary guidance and technical support to implement high-quality immunization programmes.
The goal of World Immunization Week is for more children, adults and their communities to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases, allowing them to live happier, healthier lives.
Under the theme of ‘The Big Catch-Up’, WHO is working with partners to accelerate rapid progress in countries to get back on track to ensure more people, particularly children, are protected from preventable diseases.
2023 is our global opportunity to catch-up on lost progress in essential immunization. We need to reach the millions of children who missed out on vaccines, restore essential immunization coverage to at least 2019 levels, strengthen primary health care to deliver immunization and build lasting protection in communities and countries.
As part of the 2023 campaign, WHO, partners and individuals around the world will unite to:
- Increase trust and confidence in vaccines to maintain or increase vaccine acceptance
- Increase investment in vaccines, including routine immunization, to remove barriers to access
While the world remains focused on critically important vaccines and vaccination programs to protect communities and populations against COVID-19 and its variants, there remains a need to ensure routine vaccinations are not missed. Many children have not been vaccinated during the global pandemic, leaving them at risk of serious diseases like measles and polio. Rapidly circulating misinformation around the topic of vaccination adds to this threat.
Because Rotary members and our partners have worked hard to counter vaccine hesitancy and reach all children with the polio vaccine, the world has seen a 99.9% reduction in polio cases since 1988. Our fight against polio is proof that vaccines work.
In this context, this year’s World Immunization Week campaign will aim to strengthen solidarity and trust in vaccination as a public good that saves people, protects health and provides long life for all. To this end, Rotarians and Rotary clubs around the world are asked to join, endorse and promote the campaign and show that now is the time to remind people that #VaccinesWork and help bring communities together in support of a lifesaving cause.
Please visit the WIW resource page to learn more about the World Immunization Week 2023 campaign, and to download resources and assets.
Vaccines have brought us closer, and will bring us closer again
For over 200 years, vaccines have protected us against diseases that threaten lives and prohibit our development. With their help, we can progress without the burden of diseases like smallpox and polio, which cost humanity hundreds of millions of lives
Whilst vaccines aren't a silver bullet, they will again help us progress on a path to a world where we can be together again.
Vaccines themselves continue to advance, bringing us closer to a world free from the likes of TB and cervical cancer, and ending suffering from childhood diseases like tetanus and measles.
Investment and new research is enabling groundbreaking approaches to vaccine development, which are changing the science of immunization forever, bringing us closer still to a healthier future.
Take action with Rotary
Rotary’s experience in distributing lifesaving vaccines and working with public health partners around the world is more valuable than ever. Because of our work with our Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partners to vaccinate children against polio, 19 million people who would otherwise have been paralyzed by polio can walk today. Since 1988, we’ve helped reduce worldwide polio cases by more than 99.9%. This was made possible by supporters just like you.
To continue our efforts to stop the spread of life-threatening diseases, we need your help. A gift to The Rotary Foundation supports your fellow Rotary members’ local disease prevention and vaccination work to protect communities against serious illnesses like polio, measles, and COVID-19.
This World Immunization Week, 24-30 April, please consider donating to The Rotary Foundation so that, together, we can end polio and help people everywhere stay healthy.
You can also visit EndPolio.org for more information and download Rotary's World Immunization Week Toolkit available in both English and French
It’s time to get essential immunization back on track