World Immunization Week 2022 – Long Life for All
22 April 2022
World Immunization Week 2022 – Long Life for All
World Immunization Week is a global initiative organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the last week of April (24-30 April) aiming to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against vaccine preventable diseases. World Immunization Week 2022, under the theme “#Long Life for All”, aims to unify everyone around the idea that vaccines make it possible for us to pursue our dreams, protect our loved ones and live a long, healthy life. Vaccines provide important health benefits from the early stage of life to ensure that all children can live long and grow into healthy adults.
#VaccinesWork to enable a #LongLifeForAll
Immunisation is recognized as one of the most successful, safe and cost-effective public health interventions and protects millions of people each year globally from serious and often deadly diseases including measles, hepatitis B and even some forms of cancer. In Hong Kong, with the long-established childhood immunisation programme, polio was eradicated locally in 2000 after global smallpox eradication in 1980, while measles and rubella were declared eliminated in 2016 and 2021 respectively.
As recommended by the Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases (SCVPD) under the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH), children from birth to primary six should receive different types of vaccines and boosters under the Hong Kong Childhood Immunisation Programme to protect them from tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, hepatitis B, diphtheria, whooping cough (pertussis), tetanus, pneumoccal infection, chickenpox, measles, mumps and rubella. To prevent cervical cancer, eligible female primary school students are provided with human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.
Immunisation and COVID-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic, immunisation services in the DH's Maternal and Child Health Centres (MCHCs) continue as usual. Vaccination at primary schools will be arranged by the DH's School Immunisation Teams at schools. As delays in vaccination will weaken the protection for the children against relevant infectious diseases, parents are reminded to maintain up-to-date immunisation for their children for timely protection against infectious diseases. In view of the outbreak of COVID-19, various infection control measures have been enhanced at the MCHCs including temperature screening, requiring visitors to wear masks and advising clients to reduce the number of accompanying family members or friends when attending their appointments to reduce client flow and social contact.
Vaccination is a top priority in our anti-COVID-19 measures. A territory-wide COVID-19 Vaccination Programme is being progressively rolled out in Hong Kong. In addition to personal protection, parents and carers should consider receiving COVID-19 vaccination in order to protect children who cannot yet receive COVID-19 vaccines. Moreover, the SCVPD and the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases under the CHP of the DH joined by the Chief Executive's expert advisory panel had no objection to exercising flexibility by allowing provision of COVID-19 vaccines with seasonal influenza vaccine or other childhood immunisation vaccines on the same visit for vaccination under informed consent for administrative convenience and achieving better coverage.
