{"id":33171,"date":"2026-04-28T09:37:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T07:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=33171"},"modified":"2026-04-28T09:37:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T07:37:01","slug":"vaccines-credited-with-saving-millions-of-lives-as-who-observes-immunisation-week","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/vaccines-credited-with-saving-millions-of-lives-as-who-observes-immunisation-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Vaccines credited with saving millions of lives as WHO\u00a0observes Immunisation Week"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">The World Health Organisation (WHO) has highlighted that vaccines have saved more than 150 million lives worldwide over the past fifty years.<\/span><\/div>\n<div id=\"x_x_aboveBlackLine\">\n<div><\/div>\n<div>That&#8217;s six lives every minute, every day, for five decades. They revealed this as the world observes Immunisation Week from April 24 to 30.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This year&#8217;s World Immunisation Week theme, &#8220;For every generation, vaccines work&#8221;, aims to promote how vaccines have safely protected people, families, and communities for generations and continue to safeguard the future.<\/div>\n<div>\nWHO says the milestone reached is a result of ordinary people making the decision to protect themselves, their children and their communities from diseases like measles, polio, and rotavirus and many others.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">\nOn the African continent WHO Africa, says millions of lives have been saved by vaccines but the progress is slowing down, and too many children remain unprotected.<\/div>\n<div>\nWHO Africa Regional Director for Africa, \u00a0Dr Mohamed Janabi, says that more than 500 million African children have been protected through routine immunisation.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In 2024 alone, 1.9 million lives were saved, and malaria vaccines are now being introduced in 25 member states&#8217; countries which is a major scientific and public health breakthrough.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u00a0Janabi however adds that the progress is uneven and, in some places, it is really slow.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;A single vaccine, today, as I speak, 10 countries account for 80% of the zero-dose children in this region. \u00a0This is a profound equity issue. A child&#8217;s chance of survival must never depend on geography, conflict, or even climate shock.<br \/>\nImmunisation agenda 2030 is very clear. \u00a0Strengthen routine immunisation as part of primary healthcare.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Channel Africa&#8211;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21566,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-33171","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"WHO has highlighted that vaccines have saved more than 150 million lives","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33174,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33171\/revisions\/33174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=33171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}