Thursday video: Vaccination, a family affair

This week's video follows-up on yesterday's post regarding Vaccination Week in the Americas. The Director of the Pan American Health Organization, Dr. Mirta Roses, explains that this year VWA will focus on the family, with special campaigns targeted towards seniors, women of reproductive age, children and adolescents.

In Haiti alone, an estimated 60,000 children under the age of five will receive life-saving immunization in the next few days.

UNICEF is providing vaccines, syringes and other equipment with financial assistance also provided by UNICEF and WHO.

This week's video follows-up on yesterday's post regarding Vaccination Week in the Americas. The Director of the Pan American Health Organization, Dr. Mirta Roses, explains that this year VWA will focus on the family, with special campaigns targeted towards seniors, women of reproductive age, children and adolescents.

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In Haiti alone, an estimated 60,000 children under the age of five will receive life-saving immunization in the next few days.

UNICEF is providing vaccines, syringes and other equipment with financial assistance also provided by UNICEF and WHO.

Yesterday we mentioned that immunization takes a cross-border effort. Today we follow up with the importance of cross-generational vaccination. The Director of the Pan American Health Organization, Dr. Mirta Roses, explains that this year, Vaccination Week in America will focus on the entire family.

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Sunday's launch of VWA in Haiti supplements the ongoing immunization campaign started in February, which has reached more than 220,000 children to date. In the next several days, they will be joined by an estimated 60,000 children under the age of five who will all receive shots against polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, measles and rubella.

The vaccination drive is being run by the Haitian Ministry of Health with support from UNICEF, which is providing the vaccine.

Vaccination Week of the Americas is an annual vaccination initiative covering 44 countries and territories in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. The program has been so successful that other regions of the world use it as a model for similar initiatives.