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WiRED International Marks World Immunization Week April 24-30, 2016

BY ALLISON KOZICHAROW AND BERNICE BORN

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uring World Immunization Week the World Health Organization urges people around the world to take action to “Close the Immunization Gap.”

 

Immunization prevents between two and three million deaths a year and has eradicated or cut back diseases such as smallpox and polio in many parts of the world. Yet one in five children (22.6 million) and many adults fail to get vaccinated each year, mostly because they don’t understand the value of getting these life-saving inoculations.

 

WiRED International believes that not only do vaccines protect the individual, but they also protect the entire community through “herd immunity.” That is, when enough people are vaccinated against a disease, all members of the community are less likely to contract the infection.

 

WiRED emphasizes that a variety of illnesses can be prevented or eased by immunization. The organization highlights vaccines in many of its modules, including Child Growth and Development, Hepatitis, Measles, Pneumonia, Polio and Flu.

 

Everyone needs and deserves the protection of immunization against disease. At the beginning of this year WiRED ran a Web story urging everyone to get vaccinated. During this World Immunization Week WiRED encourages people to find out what vaccines they should have, check their vaccination status, and get the vaccines they need.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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