Oral

Purpose / relevance: The proposed session will provide an update on global efforts to improve vaccine-preventable disease control. Importance: According to the World Health Organization’s estimates, vaccine-preventable diseases are responsible for approximately 25% of the 10 million deaths occurring annually among children aged <5 years worldwide. Thus, reduction in VPD-related mortality is an important element in achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goal no. 4, which calls for reduction of global under-five mortality. Further improvements in coverage with vaccines currently used in most national immunization programs, including measles, tetanus, pertussis and Haemophilus influenzae type B vaccines, are important for sustained reduction in VPD-related mortality. In addition, scaling up the use of new vaccines such as rotavirus and pneumococcal vaccine, will offer additional opportunities for protecting more children against more diseases and averting childhood deaths. Wider use of rubella vaccine, which is currently used in only 125 or 65% of countries, will be an opportunity to address remaining burden of the congenital rubella syndrome, currently estimated at 110,000 cases annually. Availability and use of quality immunization coverage and disease surveillance data are important for measuring progress toward coverage goals and evaluating impact of immunizations on VPD, but in many international settings data are lacking or remain underused. In many developing countries, immunizations are often the only routinely offered health services reaching all or most parts of the country, and therefore frequently considered as a platform for other health interventions, often entailing both benefits and risks for the immunization activities.

Session Objectives: After the session, the participants will be able to: 1. Discuss current status of global childhood immunizations with regard to achieved coverage and impact on global childhood mortality due to vaccine-preventable diseases; 2. Describe clinical features of rubella and congenital rubella syndrome (CRS), and discuss the current status of global rubella and CRS control; 3. Describe importance of quality data for monitoring progress toward vaccine-preventable disease control in international settings, and list some of non-immunization health services that can be added to the immunization program in developing countries.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)