Reaching Every Child

Getting quality vaccines from well-trained health workers to people who need them

Although immunization reaches more children than any other single intervention, 21.8 million children each year still fail to get all recommended vaccines, resulting in 1.5 million preventable deaths among children under 5 years of age. The reasons for this are as varied and complex as the populations themselves. Children are a particular concern in places where immunization programs do not exist, are poorly managed, lack resources, or are difficult to access. If vaccination programs do not reach these children, they are also unlikely to receive other essential health services.

Reaching every child

Men floating their motorcycles and vaccine carriers on boats across the river to deliver life-saving vaccines to remote parts of India.

Thousands of health workers and volunteers work around the clock to deliver vaccines to children throughout the world, no matter how remote or how hard it is to reach them.

CDC partners with countries to improve immunization program strategies and reach every child. We assist in training national immunization technical advisory groups that enable countries to make evidence-based recommendations about vaccinations. CDC assists in designing and evaluating integration of other interventions with the delivery of vaccines, such as malaria-preventing bed nets, or HIV testing and counseling. CDC also works closely with countries to build the capacity of health workers to improve and expand routine delivery of immunizations. Read our field stories to learn how we are working to achieve our goal.

Strengthening Capacity: Keeping it Simple and Realistic in India
Strengthening Capacity: Keeping it Simple and Realistic in India

India is a big, bustling, multidimensional place, full of achievements that are both impressive and surprising. India, for example, is the largest democracy in the world and has the world’s largest postal system, the longest road network, and the most English speakers of any country on Earth.

Train, Motivate, Mentor: Strengthening Immunization Systems in East Africa

The “clues” were everywhere. And in this case in rural South Sudan there were as many rumors as facts about an outbreak of yellow fever in Aweil, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State.

Page last reviewed: December 11, 2014
Content source: Global Health