By Silvio Brusaferro ISS president
This year, from 26 April to 2 May, the WHO European Region celebrates the 16th European Immunization Week (EIW). Its aim is to increase vaccine-induced immunity by raising the awareness of all the stakeholders on the importance of immunization: parents, caregivers, healthcare workers, policymakers, decisionmakers, and the media. And, above all, the citizens.
Immunization means preventing infectious diseases in the short and long term: a protection for us, our loved ones, and those who are around us. It is an additional protection in our life, a sign of care and respect for others, an informed choice for the health and wellbeing of our communities.
In these past few months, our attention has once again been focused on the importance of this wonderful health tool that has changed and will continue to change our lives for the better. In fact, this year, in addition to promoting routine vaccinations, the European Immunization Week will concentrate on COVID-19 vaccines.
It is unarguable that anti-Covid-19 vaccination is a priority, but it is essential not to leave behind routine immunizations that, should they be further neglected because of COVID-19, could have a negative impact that would continue to be felt long after the end of the pandemic.
Some diseases have become rare thanks to vaccines although they could still cause a child to lose his/her life or have a permanent impact on his/her future. Immunization reduces exposure to infectious diseases inside families, prevents different forms of cancer and contributes to reducing an inappropriate consumption of antibiotics. These are events that we can no longer accept passively, especially when there is an accessible possibility to prevent them through tools that are guaranteed to be safe by our National Health Service.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on how joint global efforts to control its spread have led to developing several vaccines extraordinarily rapidly by using different technologies and platforms, and make them available in millions of doses while, at the same time, meeting safety and efficacy standards. This extraordinary result is enabling us to better manage this pandemic and, in the wake of this effort, we must continue to make globally available vaccines capable of improving the health and wellbeing of single individuals and communities also once COVID-19 is under control. The development of vaccines through new platforms will enable us to extend the protection also against the pathogens of other infectious diseases in the general population and in people needing medical attention.
But vaccines alone are not enough; we need people to confide in them. And trust is built through information, highlighting scientific method, promoting a health culture and knowledge and the instruments to pursue it: only though adequately informed and educated choices will we be able to meet the challenges that await us with optimism.
