World Immunization Week

World Immunization Week, celebrated in the last week of April (24-30), promotes the use of vaccines to protect against disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) refers to immunization as “the world’s most powerful tool for health” as it prevents between two and three million deaths each year.

However, despite the success and necessity of vaccination, WHO reports that one in five children worldwide are unvaccinated. In 2012 an estimated 22.6 million infants were not reached with routine immunization services. That means that 22.6 million infants are unprotected from preventable, life threatening diseases.

As a result of malnutrition and unsanitary and crowded living conditions, thousands of children living on the island of Hispaniola suffer from diseases that could easily be prevented. Diseases like tuberculosis and polio, which have been eradicated in North America, still threaten the lives of children living in Haiti.

One of the main initiatives carried out by International Child Care is child vaccinations. Not only does ICC play a leading role in the prevention and cure of tuberculosis through the national TB program, but ICC also inoculates against other highly contagious childhood diseases including diphtheria, tetanus, whopping cough, polio and measles.

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