Kazakhstan makes significant progress in immunotherapies against infectious diseases – WHO official
Initiated in 2005 by the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the European Immunization Week (EIW) is set to take place from April 27 through May 3 this year, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
Saule Kassymova, national coordinator of the WHO program on increasing vaccination demand and uptake at the WHO Country Office in Kazakhstan, said: ‘Kazakhstan made significant progress in 2024 after launching the national vaccination campaign to combat human papillomavirus (HPV)’.
Kazakhstan was among a few countries of the European region to pilot the WHO’s game-based learning platform Immune Patrol, she said. ‘The platform operated in Kazakh and Russian languages is aimed to educate children aged 10-12 about the immune system and infection prevention’.
Speaking about the priority areas, Kassymova noted more monitoring action and reporting adverse reactions after immunization with the aim to build vaccine trust and prompt response action.
The speaker also highlighted the importance of systemic work to increase skills of health workers when it comes to interpersonal communication with patients and parents.
Kassymova said that vaccines have saved over 154 million lives worldwide since 1974, which is the equivalent of six lives every minute of every day over the past half century. In these 50 years, vaccination led to 40% of the decline in infant mortality rates, with measles vaccine accounting for 60% of those lives saved.
Earlier it was reported that Kazakhstan mulls vaccinating boys against human papillomavirus (HPV).
