WHO says vaccines saved 154m in 50 years

Global immunisation efforts have saved at least 154 million lives in the past 50 years, the World Health Organisation said yesterday, adding that most of them were infants.

That is the equivalent of six lives saved every minute of every year of the half century, the UN health agency said.

In a study published in the Lancet, WHO gave a comprehensive analysis of the impact of 14 vaccines used under the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), which celebrates its 50th anniversary next month.

‘Powerful inventions’

“Vaccines are among the most powerful inventions in history, making oncefeared diseases preventable,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

“Thanks to vaccines, smallpox has been eradicated, polio is on the brink, and with the more recent development of vaccines against diseases like malaria and cervical cancer, we are pushing back the frontiers of disease,” he said.

The study said infants accounted for 101 million of the lives saved through immunisation over the five decades. “Immunisation was the single greatest contribution of any health intervention to ensuring babies not only see their first birthdays, but continue leading healthy lives into adulthood”, WHO said.

The vaccine against measles had the most significant impact. That jab accounted for 60 per cent of the lives saved due to immunisation, according to the study.

The polio vaccine means that more than 20 million people are able to walk today who would otherwise have been paralysed.

The study also showed that when a vaccine saves a child’s life, they go on to live an average of 66 years of full health on average.

In a study published in the Lancet, WHO gave a comprehensive analysis of the impact of 14 vaccines used under the Expanded Programme on Immunisation, which celebrates its 50th anniversary next month.