More than 30 diseases worldwide are vaccine-preventable: WHO chief

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) spoke Sunday in support of vaccines despite some skeptics, saying that today, more than 30 diseases are vaccine-preventable and vaccines avert more than 4 million deaths annually.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at the opening session of the organization's May 21-May 30 World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, recalled that as a youngster in Africa, disease had snatched one of his brothers' lives.

"Vaccines drove smallpox into oblivion," said Tedros.

"But millions of children across Africa and around the world-children just like my brother-continued to be snatched away by diseases for which children in other countries were immunized.

"That's why, in 1974, WHO launched the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), to ensure all children, in all countries, benefited from the life-saving power of vaccines, initially for six major diseases: diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles and tuberculosis," he added.

At the time, only about 10% of children worldwide received three doses of the DTP vaccine.

Due to the EPI, it reached 86% in 2019, but Tedros noted that it has slipped since then due to COVID-19 pandemic disruptions.

"Today, more than 30 diseases are vaccine-preventable, and EPI recommends 13 as essential for every country. Through WHO's support for countries to ensure access to vaccines for all children, we are helping to avert more than 4 million deaths every year," he said.

"Vaccines are among the most powerful innovations in human history."

Vaccines now raise hopes of eliminating cervical cancer while helping snuff out Ebola outbreaks faster.

"For the first time, malaria is a vaccine-preventable disease," said Tedros.