World Immunization Week is celebrated in the last week of April (World Immunization Week 2023) and European Immunization Week (European Immunization Week 2023), now in its eighteenth edition.
Immunization Week is promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise awareness among the population, healthcare professionals and decision makers about the importance of vaccines at all stages of life and aims to highlight the collective action needed to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages from disease. The week is supported by national and international partners, including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
The world week
The theme of this year’s World Immunization Week is “The Big Catch-Up” (“The Great Recovery”), to underline the global need to catch up on the progress made over the years thanks to vaccinations and reach the millions of children who have failed to get vaccinated due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ultimate goal of World Immunization Week is for more children, adults and their communities to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases, enabling them to live happier and healthier lives.
In Europa
The WHO European Region for the European Vaccination Week also aims to raise awareness of the importance of vaccinations in disease prevention. This year’s campaign will focus on improving vaccination uptake in the context of the European Vaccination Agenda 2030 (European Immunization Agenda 2030), in the face of a global decline in vaccination coverage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Key messages to the population focus on the importance of routine vaccinations at recommended times, catch-up for any missed or delayed vaccinations, and reaffirm the importance of COVID-19 vaccination, particularly among groups with the highest risk of serious illness.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) also underlines the need for a lifelong approach to vaccination, highlighting the crucial importance of vaccines for children, but also that vaccines are strongly recommended also for adolescents, adults and the elderly.
Vaccination coverage in Italy
The 2021 vaccination coverage is still affected by the impact that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had in our country. There is a general improvement in coverage of most recommended immunizations in the early years, compared to 2020 data. However, coverage for polio (used as a proxy for hexavalent vaccinations) and measles at 24 months, do not reach the value of 95%, that is the one recommended by the WHO to limit the circulation of these pathogens in the community. Data on coverage at 36 and 48 months testify to a recovery in these birth cohorts, the result of efforts by the Regions, which have implemented recovery activities following the drop in coverage due to the pandemic.
The progressive improvement in HPV coverage in individual adolescent cohorts continues, with an increase of 1.9% for girls who turn 12 in the year of the survey, compared to 2020. However, the average HPV vaccination coverage in girls and in boys it is below the optimal threshold set by the National Vaccination Prevention Plan (95% in the 12th year of life).
#EveryDoseCounts – #OgniVaccinoConta
to know more