Immunization
Key facts
- Immunization is a proven tool for controlling and even eradicating disease.
- Vaccines – which protect against disease by inducing immunity – are widely and routinely administered around the world based on the common-sense principle that it is better to keep people from falling ill than to treat them once they are ill.
- All vaccines used for routine immunization are effective in preventing disease, although no vaccine attains 100% effectiveness
- More than one dose of a vaccine is generally given to increase the chance of developing immunity.
- Routine vaccination is now provided in all developing countries against measles, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and tuberculosis.
- In industrialized countries, a wider span of protection is typically provided, often including vaccines against influenza, predominant strains of pneumococcal disease, and mumps (usually in combination with measles and rubella vaccine).
- Vaccines are safe, and side-effects are minor ─ especially when compared to the diseases they are designed to prevent. Serious complications occur rarely. For example, an immediate severe allergic reaction to measles vaccine (anaphylaxis) occurs in less than one case per million doses given.
- Immunization from preventable diseases helps reduce the contagion of diseases and the strain on healthcare systems, and money is frequently saved that can be used for other health services.
- Immunization is considered to be among the most cost-effective of health investments.
Vaccines in China
The National Expanded Programme on Immunization in China covers 12 children's diseases in its routine immunization schedule, free of charge all over the country. Those diseases are measles, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, hepatitis A, rubella, mumps, Japanese encephalitis and Meningococcal meningitis.