On April 21-28, the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and national health agencies throughout the world are sponsoring programs to recognize World Immunization Week. The goal of this week’s awareness programs is to educate families about the seriousness of vaccine-preventable diseases, to draw awareness to the success of global immunization programs and to encourage hesitant parents to get their children completely immunized.

While immunization prevents almost 3 million deaths every year, 2 million children die of vaccine-preventable diseases before their fifth birthday. Global eradication programs continue to push forward but 20 million children in Southeast Asia and Africa have not received basic infant vaccines.