World Immunisation Week

World Immunisation Week – celebrated every year in the last week of April – aims to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease.

The importance of being vaccinated has been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and with Australia entering the flu season the need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu is a focus.

Immunisation saves millions of lives every year and is widely recognised as one of the world’s most successful health interventions.

However, 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.

World Immunisation Week 2021 will urge greater engagement around immunisation globally to promote the importance of vaccination in bringing people together, and improving the health and wellbeing of everyone, everywhere throughout life.

As part of the 2021 campaign, this year running from 24-30 April, there will be an emphasis on increasing trust and confidence in vaccines to maintain or increase vaccine acceptance, and increasing investment in vaccines, including routine immunisation, to remove barriers to access.

While the world focuses on critically important new vaccines to protect against COVID-19, 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.

More details are available on World Immunisation Week website.