Immunization

Speeches Shim

A vaccine is administered to an infant
At the Women and Children Welfare Hospital in Sokoto, Nigeria, women bring their children to be vaccinated.
Photo: Karen Kasmauski/MCSP

Every year, 1.5 million people, including over 600,000 children under the age of five, die from vaccine-preventable diseases.1

Each year, 19 million infants worldwide—including 12.2 million infants in USAID's 25 priority countries for maternal and child survival—are not reached with basic vaccinations.2 USAID works to fill the gap to ensure no child is left behind by increasing coverage of life-saving vaccines for hard to reach populations.

For every dollar invested in immunizations, a $16 return on investment is generated from saved costs of treating illness.3

Immunization saves 2 to 3 million lives annually and is one of the most cost-effective public health interventions to stop the spread of preventable infectious diseases. USAID supports countries to develop sound immunization policies, strategies, and guidelines to ensure greater country ownership of routine immunization programs. Our investments ensure that vaccines reach every child and continue to be delivered long after our support ends. Our support for immunization not only contributes to our global health objectives, but also to the full range of USAID’s development objectives, from promoting economic growth and trade to strengthening national security and supporting the resilience and self-reliance of our partner countries.

USAID partners with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to bring public and private sectors together and expand access to and utilization of life-saving vaccines in 73 low-income countries.4 Our long standing partnership with Gavi shows our commitment to reducing the spread of vaccine preventable infectious diseases, protecting child lives, and helping countries on their Journey to Self-Reliance. USAID also supports polio eradication activities through the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). Our approach to polio eradication emphasizes engagement with local and international non-governmental organizations, with a particular focus on hard-to-reach populations, disease surveillance, and outbreak response.

 

RESOURCES

Gavi: The Vaccine Alliance webpage

USAID Acting on the Call: Ending Preventable Child and Maternal Deaths

Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)


1 https://www.gavi.org/programmes-impact/our-impact/facts-and-figures

2 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/immunization-coverage

3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26858370

4 https://www.gavi.org/