Sibilia Quilici
Executive Director, Vaccines Europe
Vaccines have been shown to be one of the most successful healthcare interventions of our time, saving up to 5 million lives globally each year.
By preventing diseases and reducing the demand and misuse of antibiotics, vaccines are a key ally against antimicrobial resistance, which could claim 10 million lives a year by 2050.
Celebrating vaccine achievements
Vaccination led to the complete eradication of smallpox by 1980. It also led to the near elimination of polio, with the European Region declared “polio-free” in 2002. Over one in five child deaths are being averted globally thanks to the introduction of the MMR vaccine. And today, increasing vaccination rates for HPV and hepatitis B could allow us to see a world free of vaccine-preventable cancers tomorrow.
If we want our children to grow in Europe free of vaccine-preventable diseases and cancers, we need a significant paradigm shift to support sustainably prevention and immunisation policies.
A need for vaccination programmes
However, these unique public health features that vaccines bring cannot be achieved in the absence of adherence to vaccination programmes by the population.
Flu vaccination can protect against influenza and its related complications and save up to 332 million Euros in healthcare costs in Europe by freeing hospital beds and drastically reducing visits to healthcare professionals. Still, every year, up to 72,000 people die of influenza-associated respiratory disease in Europe.
The issue lies in the way immunisation programmes are supported politically and financially. Almost 80% of European governments spend less than 0.5% of their healthcare budget on immunisation programmes.
Achieving equitable vaccine access
Two years since the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic and despite having sufficient production of vaccines to meet the world’s needs, we have not yet achieved equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines. The massive global vaccination campaign run to achieve equitable access has been significantly weakened by a lack of country readiness, resources and infrastructure, as well as vaccine hesitancy.
The consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine could amplify the threat of vaccine-preventable diseases even further as past evidence has shown that viruses spread even more rapidly in the context of humanitarian and sanitary crises.
If we want our children to grow in Europe free of vaccine-preventable diseases and cancers, we need a significant paradigm shift to support sustainably prevention and immunisation policies.
Permanent high uptake of routine vaccination across the life-course in all countries is the best way to be prepared against external threats so that resources and attention in times of crisis, being a financial crisis, a pandemic or a war, can remain focused on what could not have been prevented.
