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Posts from the ‘World Immunization Week’ Category

Apr 29

Every Child’s Life is Precious

By Felisa Hilbert

During World Immunization Week (April 24-30) organizations around the world raise their voices to educate, promote and increase the rates of immunization against vaccine-preventable diseases.

Why? Because every child’s life is precious. Yet in developing countries around the world, a child dies every 20 seconds from diseases that can be easily prevented with a vaccine. When you think that every 20 seconds a child dies (which equals 3 children per minute), 180 will die in an hour and 4,320 children will die in a day. Can you imagine 1,440 children dying during your shift of 8 hours at work? I know for many of us here in United States this seems astonishing and incredible, but this is a reality for many mothers and children in developing countries. Read more

Apr 27

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Closing the Immunization Gap: It’s Time to Reach the Fifth Child

By Jordan Savold, communications and research fellow at the Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition and United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life Champion

World Immunization Week is held each year during the last week of April to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease.

UN Foundation photo

Photo: United Nations Foundation, Shot@Life

Did you know that one in five children worldwide lacks access to important, life-saving vaccines?

This means that around the world, every 20 seconds a child will die from a vaccine preventable disease. The number of children dying every year from preventable diseases in developing countries is equivalent to nearly half the children entering kindergarten in the U.S.

Read more