World Immunization Week is an opportunity to raise awareness about the effectiveness of vaccines and mobilize community support for immunization.

In July 2022, WHO and UNICEF reported the largest sustained decline in childhood vaccinations in approximately 30 years. An estimated 12.5 million children in the world are totally unvaccinated.

Vaccination is one of the best tools we have to improve people’s health and well-being. Global vaccination programs for preventable diseases, such as polio, need to continue to protect vulnerable children and prevent outbreaks.

Rotary members have proven the good that vaccines do by immunizing 3 billion children against polio and reducing the cases of polio by 99.9% since 1988. But we know the job isn’t done until every child is vaccinated, and polio is stopped for good.

 

How polio effort is helping battle malaria

Health workers in Pakistan go door to door administering the polio vaccine. Volunteers in Zambia perform a dramatic skit showing how malaria spreads. These efforts may seem very different, but they're deeply connected. A global partnership has mobilized millions of workers, reached underserved populations, and gathered unprecedented amounts of health information in the fight to end polio. That work by Rotary and its partners is also proving crucial in the battle against malaria. Learn more for World Malaria Day, 25 April. And read a blog post from Eric Liswaniso, program manager for Malaria Partners Zambia, who lost his parents to malaria when he was young.