Vaccine-Preventable Diseases

Primary reference(s)

WHO, 2019. Vaccine-preventable diseases and vaccines. In: International Travel and Health, Chapter 6. World Health Organization (WHO). Accessed 17 February 2025.

Annotations

Key relevant UN convention / multilateral treaty

International Health Regulations (2005), 3rd ed. (WHO, 2016).

Drivers

The most common sociodemographic determinants associated with the reduction of vaccination uptake were economic status, age, education, and household composition (Eiden et al., 2022).  

Impacts

Globally in 2023, there were 14.5 million children missing out on any vaccination – so-called zero-dose children (WHO, 2024). The most common sociodemographic determinants associated with the reduction of vaccination uptake were economic status, age, education, and household composition (Eiden et al., 2022).

Multi-hazard context

Vaccine refusal not only increases the individual risk of disease but also increases the risk for the whole community (Omer et al, 2009).  Issues with regard to the burden of disease mortality, disease transmission, and available vaccines as well as vaccine successes and shortcomings for specific pathogens can serve as important landmarks for effective use of future vaccines (Frankel, 2021)

Risk Management

Vaccines reduce the risks of getting a disease by working with each individual’s natural defences to build protection (WHO, no date a).  Health care now has vaccines to prevent more than 20 life-threatening diseases, helping people of all ages live longer, healthier lives. Immunisation currently prevents 3.5 million to 5 million deaths every year from diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, influenza and measles (WHO, no date a). 

WHO is working with countries and partners to improve global vaccination coverage, including through these initiatives adopted by the World Health Assembly in August 2020.  

Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) sets an ambitious, overarching global vision and strategy for vaccines and immunization for the decade 2021–2030 (WHO, 2020). It was co-created with thousands of contributions from countries and organizations around the world. It draws on lessons from the past decade and acknowledges continuing and new challenges posed by infectious diseases (e.g. Ebola, COVID-19) (WHO, no date a). 

The strategy has been designed to respond to the interests of every country and intends to inspire and align the activities of community, national, regional and global stakeholders towards achieving a world where everyone, everywhere fully benefits from vaccines for good health and well-being. IA2030 is operationalized through regional and national strategies, and a mechanism to ensure ownership and accountability and a monitoring and evaluation framework to guide country implementation (WHO, 2021).

Monitoring

WHO supports countries to conduct all-hazards strategic risk assessment in the contexts of health emergencies and disasters, which results in the development of a country risk profile. Empowered with the country risk profile, inclusive of a seasonal risk calendar, countries can anticipate potential emergencies before they occur to trigger early alerts and inform early actions (WHO, 2021 c).

WHO's Early Warning, Alert and Response System (EWARS) has been designed to improve disease outbreak detection in emergency settings, such as in countries in conflict or following a disaster from natural hazards. It is a simple and cost-effective way to rapidly set up a disease surveillance system. EWARS is deployed during an emergency as an adjunct to the national disease surveillance system. WHO works with Ministries of Health and health sector partners to train local health workers to use the system. After the emergency, EWARS should re-integrate back into the national system (WHO, 2023).