Every year, the European Immunisation Week is held in the WHO European Region, including the Republic of Belarus, with the aim of informing the public about the important role that immunisation plays in preventing infectious diseases and saving lives.
Every year, the European Immunisation Week is held in the WHO European Region, including the Republic of Belarus, with the aim of informing the public about the important role that immunisation plays in preventing infectious diseases and saving lives.
Immunoprophylaxis is one of the greatest achievements of medicine. Preventive vaccinations have saved millions of lives. More than two hundred years ago, the first vaccination against smallpox was administered. This disease has been eradicated solely thanks to vaccination. Today, medical professionals already have the latest mRNA vaccines in their arsenal. The efficacy and safety of the vaccines used have been proven.
Vaccines protect each individual and help to create herd immunity for all people as members of the global community.
This year marks another important date – the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Expanded Programme on Immunization, aimed at reducing the incidence and eradicating certain infectious diseases that are manageable and preventable through specific prophylaxis, such as poliomyelitis, measles, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and tuberculosis. The main objectives of the Expanded Programme on Immunization are: reducing morbidity, reducing child mortality, increasing life expectancy and active longevity, and the global eradication of certain infections.
Over the past decades, the administration of preventive vaccinations has led to significant successes in the prevention of a number of infectious diseases worldwide: smallpox has been eradicated, and the circulation of two out of three wild strains of the poliovirus has been eliminated. A significant decrease in the number of cases of measles, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, generalized forms of tuberculosis, and acute viral hepatitis B in children, as well as other vaccine-preventable infections, has been observed.
Maintaining optimal vaccination coverage rates in the population has ensured epidemiological well-being in Lepel District regarding "vaccine-preventable" infections. For 19 years now, no cases of tetanus, diphtheria, rubella, or epidemic parotitis have been registered.
The rapid development of the COVID-19 pandemic
demonstrated the importance and irrefutability of vaccination as the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases.
Maintaining the achieved epidemiological well-being regarding "vaccine-preventable" infections is possible only with the active participation of each of us.
Today, we have universal access to high-quality and safe vaccines for immunization within the framework of the National Calendar of Preventive Vaccinations.
Of course, each person can make a personal decision: to vaccinate themselves or their child or not. But when making such a decision, one should imagine a pair of scales, where on one side are unfounded, scientifically unproven speculations about the harm of vaccination, the risk of contracting an infectious disease with severe consequences, and on the other side – health, well-being, and a long life.
Epidemiologist of the Lepel District Centre for Hygiene and Epidemiology N. Pobortseva