Issue

Over the years, the development and expansion of vaccines has helped ease the burden of many vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). However, many countries and communities still do not have access to vaccines, resulting in the preventable loss of human life or finances due to VPD epidemics.

Strategic Objectives

• Maintain high vaccination coverage rates and improve optimal vaccination rates where needed
• Strengthen systems for the safety management of adverse effects from vaccinations
• Identify and target immunization to populations at risk of epidemic-prone VPDs of national importance and create a priority list of high-risk regions and populations in order to provide vaccinations to VPD endemic areas
• Strengthen systems for VPD prevention and control, such as outbreak response immunization, case-based surveillance system, and access to a laboratory in a VPD laboratory network for diagnostic confirmation
• Conduct routine or supplementary immunization activities for addressing immunity gaps for measles