According to WHO, vaccines save six lives every minute for 50 years.

Vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives over the past 50 years, the equivalent of six lives per minute, according to a WHO study published Wednesday by the scientific journal The Lancet. The World Health Organization stressed in a press release that this estimate is “conservative” because the study only covered vaccinations against 14 diseases, including diphtheria, hepatitis B, measles, whooping cough, tetanus and yellow fever.

“Vaccines are among the most powerful inventions in history, helping to prevent diseases once feared,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

“Thanks to vaccination, more children have failed to survive and thrive beyond their fifth birthday than at any other time in history,” Katherine Russell, executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), also commented in the same report. Press release.

WHO, UNICEF, the Gavi vaccine alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have launched a joint Human Maybe campaign to support vaccination efforts. Efforts that are sometimes met with very strong anti-vaccine sentiment, fueled by conspiracy theories circulating on social media.

Reducing child mortality

The study shows that the vast majority of lives saved by vaccines over the past 50 years (101 million) were among infants. Thus, according to WHO, vaccination against 14 diseases directly contributed to a reduction in child mortality by 40% worldwide and by more than 50% in the African region.

“Thanks to vaccines, smallpox has been eradicated, polio is on the brink of extinction, and with the recent development of vaccines against diseases such as malaria and cervical cancer, we are pushing the boundaries of disease,” Dr Tedros said. “With continued research, investment and collaboration, we can save millions more lives today and over the next 50 years,” he also said.

Among the vaccines included in the study, measles vaccination had the most significant impact on reducing child mortality, accounting for 60% of lives saved. According to WHO, this vaccine “is likely to remain the one most effective in preventing deaths in the future.”

According to WHO, polio vaccination has enabled more than 20 million people who would otherwise be paralyzed to walk.

Concerns about measles

Overall, the progress made in child survival thanks to vaccines underscores the importance of continuing these efforts, according to the UN agency.

In particular, it calls for increased efforts to reach the 67 million children who have missed out on one or more vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic, during which health services have been closed or severely disrupted.

WHO is particularly concerned about measles. Nearly 94 million of the 154 million lives saved since 1974 have been saved by measles vaccines, which require two doses. But in 2022, 33 million children still missed a dose of measles vaccine: almost 22 million missed the first dose and another 11 million missed the second dose. However, 95% or more coverage with 2 vaccine doses is required to protect communities from epidemics.

Global coverage of the first dose of measles vaccine is currently 83% and the second dose is 74%, contributing to “a very large number of measles epidemics” around the world, he said.