The UN organization emphasizes that this estimate is “cautious” because the study only concerns vaccination against 14 diseases.
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Vaccines have saved at least 154 million human lives over the last 50 years, the equivalent of six people every minute, according to a study by the World Health Organization (WHO) published Wednesday April 24 by the scientific journal The Lancet. The WHO emphasizes, in a press release, that this estimate is “cautious” because the study only covers vaccination against 14 diseases, including diphtheria, hepatitis B, measles, whooping cough, tetanus and yellow fever.
“Vaccines are among the most powerful inventions in history”said WHO Director-General, Doctor Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in the press release. “Thanks to vaccination, never before have so many children been able to survive and develop beyond their fifth birthday”also commented the Director General of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Catherine Russell, in the same press release.
101 million infants saved in half a century
Of the vaccines examined in the study, the one intended to combat measles had the most significant impact, accounting for 60% of lives saved. “Thanks to vaccines, smallpox has been eradicated, polio is on the verge of being eradicated, and with the more recent development of vaccines against diseases like malaria and cervical cancer, we are pushing back the borders of the disease”underlined Dr Tedros.
The study also points out that the majority of lives saved thanks to vaccination, 101 million, are those of infants. Vaccination against the 14 diseases has directly contributed to reducing child mortality by 40% worldwide and by more than 50% in Africa.
However, WHO is calling for intensified efforts to reach the 67 million children who have not received one or more vaccines during the pandemic. The UN agency is particularly worried about measles: 33 million children still lack a dose of vaccine for this disease in 2022.