The European Immunization Week (EIW) has started today in Kyrgyzstan. It will run from 24 to 30 April this year, Deputy Minister of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic Bubuzhan Arykbayeva told during a press conference. This year the week was organized under the auspices of the WHO Catch Up Campaign, which aims to address the alarming level of vaccination of children around the world. 'The EIW is designed to draw public attention to immunization as one of the main preventive measures to protect the population from infectious diseases. Its goal is to highlight the importance of ensuring equitable and widespread access to vaccines, which contributes to ensuring a long and healthy life for every person,' the deputy minister said. Together with other countries of the WHO European Region, in 2002 Kyrgyzstan was certified as a polio-free country. In 2019, WHO recognized Kyrgyzstan as a rubella-free country. 'In recent years, with the support of GAVI, WHO and UNICEF, several vaccines have been introduced into the national vaccination schedule of Kyrgyzstan: the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in 2016, the inactivated polio vaccine in 2018, the rotavirus vaccine in 2019, and the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in 2022,' Arykbayeva noted. However, according to the deputy minister, there are suggestions that since 2020 some children have missed one or more doses of vaccines, including the first dose of measles vaccine. 'It is important that parents understand the importance of giving their children a full course of vaccinations and use every opportunity to make sure that their children do not miss a single dose of the vaccine, and in case of a missed one, catch up as soon as possible,' said Bubuzhan Arykbaeva. She also noted that along with the work of vaccination rooms, 76 mobile teams in all regions will be involved throughout the week to carry out routine and catch-up immunization of children and adults according to the preventive vaccination calendar, and in all hard-to-reach regions, vaccination against COVID-19 will be carried out for all ages. categories of the population. Special Representative of the WHO Regional Director in the Kyrgyz Republic and Acting Head of the office Shahin Huseinov added that this year the World Health Organization turned 75 years old. 'Over the past decades, working together with the Ministry of Health and our many partners, we have made great progress in improving the health of the population. This is largely due to the effectiveness of vaccines and the success of the national immunization program. We are confident that, thanks to the ongoing cooperation between Kyrgyzstan, WHO and other partners, we will overcome the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to implement activities aimed at protecting children and adults from dangerous diseases that can be prevented with vaccines,' Huseinov said. According to UNICEF Deputy Representative in Kyrgyzstan Cristina Brugiolo, a couple of days ago, UNICEF released a new global report on immunization called The State of the World's Children 2023: Vaccination for Every Child. 'The report presents a range of solutions to strengthen primary health care and the health workforce, make health and immunization spending more efficient, remove gender barriers, and drive new innovations in vaccines and vaccine products. Combining these activities with community engagement and the introduction of new methods to combat misinformation about vaccines will be critical to ensuring community engagement in our efforts to restore childhood immunization coverage,' Brugiolo said. Every year the European Immunization Week (EIW) is held in the WHO European Region, aimed at promoting immunization, which is of great importance for preventing diseases and protecting lives. The first EIW took place in 2005, with only a few countries in the region taking part. The aim of the initiative is to increase vaccination coverage by spreading the word that every child needs and is entitled to protection against vaccine-preventable diseases. EIW immediately became one of the most visible and well-known public health campaigns in the region.

Source: Kyrgyz National News Agency