World Health Organization Vaccination Program Saves 154 Million Lives, Study Finds

As part of a special celebration of the World Health Organization (WHO) scientists have discovered how many lives have been saved by using vaccines. This shows that young children in particular benefit from the extra protection.

This month the World Health Organization (WHO) something to celebrate: the vaccination program Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) officially started 50 years ago. The WHO thought this was a good time to find out how many lives the vaccination program has saved. This shows that since the program was established in 1974, vaccines have prevented a total of 154 million deaths. Scientist Andrew Shattock contributed to the research. He said: “We believe that the EPI is ultimately responsible for the greatest increase in the survival rate of young children. In 2024, a child under the age of ten will be around 40% more likely to live to their next birthday compared to 50 years ago. We are also seeing this increased chance of survival in older people.” The research is published in the journal The Lancet.

Vaccination program
For the research, the scientists used a colorful collection of mathematical and statistical models. During their calculations, they looked at the impact of the EPI on all 14 diseases targeted by the vaccination program. The subsequent study showed that EPI ultimately prevented 154 million deaths. What is surprising here is that the distribution between age groups is very skewed. The research shows that the EPI ultimately prevented the majority of deaths among children under the age of 5. This amounts to 146 million lives saved. The results of the study show that fighting measles is the biggest contributor to this, followed by tetanus and whooping cough. Shattock explains: “We found that the measles vaccine was ultimately responsible for 60% of the global positive impact of EPI. This was the biggest reason so many lives were saved in the end. “

Political support
According to the scientists, the results are important because they show how effective vaccination programs can be. In their research, the scientists therefore want more political support for these types of programs. In their application, the scientists indicate that the health benefits obtained can disappear very quickly if vaccines are not given in time anymore. This seemed to be especially true during the corona pandemic, which was a major reason for the WHO ‘The Big Catch Up’ for starters: an initiative within EPI which aims to keep up with the accumulated ‘vaccination backlog’ among young children. Do you want to know more about this? Then take a look here.