Promoting Evidence-Based Strategies for New and Underutilized Vaccines

(PAHO Photos) Nicaraguan girl and Bolivian boy during Vaccination Week in the Americas.

Despite the extraordinary progress in reducing deaths and disease through more widespread vaccination programs, many children still do not fully benefit from all available vaccines. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 8.8 million children under 5 years of age die each year around the world, mostly in poor countries of Asia and Africa.

Since 1991, CDC has been consulting with ministries of health and international organizations like WHO and UNICEF to provide evidence-based strategies using epidemiologic, laboratory, and programmatic research to

• direct polio eradication
• reduce measles and rubella mortality,
• strengthen routine immunization systems, and
• guide the introduction of new and underutilized vaccines.