World Immunization Week 2021 – Vaccines bring us closer

The World Immunization Week observed each year in the last week of April. It aims to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease.

World Immunization Week 2021

The World Immunization Week (WIW) 2021 (April 24th-30th) will show how vaccination connects us to the people, goals and moments that matter to us most, helping improve the health of everyone, everywhere throughout life. The theme of 2021 WIW is ‘Vaccines bring us closer’.

World Immunization Week 2021 will aim to:

• Reframe the global vaccine conversation to focus on the importance of vaccines
• Highlight the many ways in which vaccines enable us to live healthy, productive lives by preventing the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases
• Demonstrate social proof that the broader public already values and trust vaccines
• This year’s campaign looks to build solidarity and trust in vaccination as a public good that saves lives and protects health. To this end, we will be seeking more partners to join us, bringing people together in support of a lifesaving cause.

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 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 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.

Key Messages

Message 1: Vaccines bring us closer to doing what we love with those we love.

• We have sacrificed so much to keep our loved ones and community safe from COVID-19: family reunions, hugs from loved ones, meals with friends and colleagues;
• Now, vaccines offer us the clearest path back to normal. Along with other measures like mask-wearing and physical distancing, equitably protecting people with safe and effective vaccines will help end the pandemic and bring us closer again;
• Thanks to decades of research and advances in vaccine science and technology during the pandemic, we will also be better prepared to handle diseases past, present and future.  

Message 2: Vaccines bring us closer to a world where no one suffers or dies from a vaccine-preventable disease.

• Vaccines are one of the greatest scientific innovations of all time. In the past century, they have brought us closer to ending polio and helped us eradicate smallpox. Thanks to vaccines, today billions of people live healthy lives protected from vaccine-preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough;
• In just the last 30 years, child deaths have decreased by over 50%, thanks in large part to vaccines. Vaccines now help protect against more than 20 diseases, from pneumonia to cervical cancer and Ebola;
• Still, millions of children miss out on basic childhood vaccines every year. Increasing access to vaccines everywhere is the best way to give every child a healthy start to life and protect against preventable diseases from birth into old age.

Message 3: Vaccines bring us closer to a healthier, more prosperous world.

• In today’s interconnected world, an outbreak anywhere is a threat everywhere. Vaccines are one of the best tools we have to improve health and wellbeing around the world;
• Immunization helps children grow into healthy adults. Vaccinated, healthy children can attend school and reap the benefits of education, and their parents are able to participate in the workforce, putting communities on the path to greater economic prosperity;
• Immunization also reaches more people than any other health service, connecting families with health care systems and ensuring everyone has access to the care they need.

Related readings

• Call to Action: Vaccine Equity Declaration
• National Immunization Schedule, Nepal (Revised)
• World Immunization Week 2020 #VaccinesWork for All
• World Immunization Week- Protected Together: #VaccinesWork!
• Microplanning for immunization service delivery using the Reaching Every District (RED) strategy
• Gaps Remain in Countries Readiness to Deploy COVID-19 Vaccines
• International days, weeks and years of Public Health Concern
• Marking a decade since last polio case: WHO SEAR countries gear up for massive vaccination campaign – this time for COVID-19 virus
• COVID-19 Vaccine FAQs (Nepali)
• Principles for sharing COVID-19 Vaccine doses with COVAX
• Vaccines development process & Clinical trials
• TB Vaccine results announce a promising step towards ending the emergency
• Malaria vaccine pilot launched in Malawi