6-year-old Esita receives her second dose of COVID-19 vaccine from Zone Nurse Jotivini Tisaru during the COVID-19 school vaccination outreach in Fiji.
Vaccines in the Western Pacific
For over two centuries, vaccines have helped make the world safe—from the very first vaccine developed to protect against smallpox to the newest mRNA vaccines used to prevent severe cases of COVID-19. Every year, vaccines save millions of lives.
Vaccines are available to prevent more than 20 life-threatening diseases, helping people live longer, healthier lives. They reduce risks of getting a disease by working with your body’s natural defenses to build protection. When you get a vaccine, your immune system responds.
Though immunization is widely recognized as one of the most successful and widespread tools we have to protect against vaccine-preventable diseases, not everyone has the same access to them. In the Western Pacific Region, an estimated 1.5 million children missed out on basic vaccines through routine immunization services in 2021, the majority never receiving a single vaccine dose.
Countries and areas in the Western Pacific continue to introduce new vaccinations for people of all ages.
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