Challenges to immunization Programs

There is little doubt that global efforts to increase vaccination coverage levels among children in developing countries have been effective at increasing the number of children receiving vaccines as well as the number of children who get sick from these preventable diseases. The most recent and perhaps most dramatic example of such success comes from recent efforts to immunize children against measles in Africa. Measles deaths in Africa decreased by about 90% from 2000-2006 following widespread immunization from the vaccines. Widespread adoption of the measles vaccine is perhaps one of the most notable, and I would argue, most under appreciated successes of global health during the past decade.

 Vaccine preventable diseases remain major killers of children throughout Africa, despite many decades of efforts to immunize children against these diseases.