Immunization plus
ISSUE Globally, 1.7 million children die from diseases each year, which could have been prevented with readily available vaccines. It is essential that all parents know why, when, where and how many times the child should be immunised. All children have the right to this protection. The long tradition of immunisation programme in Serbia resulted in the high coverage (over 90%) of children with immunization against tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio and measles. However, the health system is still facing some difficulties in preserving those results. Financial resources intended for health are decreasing, which causes poor service maintenance and diminishes the motivation of health staff. Some parents are boycotting vaccination out of religious (the Pentecostal church in the South of Serbia) or national reasons (some Albanian parents in the South of Serbia). Each year UNICEF discovers over 15,000 children who are not vaccinated, mainly from Roma ethnic group, and internally displaced persons. Most of them are not even registered in the health system. Discriminatory attitude towards those children is still present sometimes even by health workers. The process of their inclusion into the health care system is a long way.
ACTION Huge investment in the system with the provision of cold chain, vehicles and consumables has been made. A lot has been invested in training of professionals, but also in promotional material in several languages. Throughout the years, UNICEF invested lots of financial and human resources in strengthening the immunization system. The service was reinforced by establishing the cold chain throughout the country, provision of vehicles for outreach immunization activities, and provision of vaccines and devices for conducting the immunization, as needed. In order to provide the equal rights to all children, the project on immunization of marginalised children was launched. So far, over 35,000 unvaccinated children and 23,428 unvaccinated women (against tetanus) from marginalized groups were identified. Approximately 60% of them were protected from vaccine preventable diseases and 25% became included into the health care system. New vaccines are introduced into the calendar, preventing new disease like Haemophilic Influenza that can cause severe disease like pneumonia or Meningitis and Hepatitis B. IMPACT The undertaken activities achieved sustainable eradication of polio, elimination of neonatal tetanus and decreasing trend of mortality and morbidity from measles, diphtheria and whooping cough. Severe cases of tuberculosis among children are now rare. All those achievements contribute to the decreasing trend of child mortality in the country. Still, the fight for social inclusion of the most deprived people will go on. Using immunization service with its strong outreach capabilities, and experienced health workers in the field, we will continue to include marginalized children into health and other social services.
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