The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will join world countries in celebrations of the World Immunization Week under the theme "Are you up-to-date?" during the period from April 24th to 30th, 2015 (corresponding to Rajab 5th-11th, 1436). The Kingdom participation in this event comes in light of a number of achievements carried out by the Ministry of Health's "MOH" immunization program, which has protected, thanks to Allah in the first place, the Kingdom's children against a number of infectious diseases and their complications.
The World Immunization Week aims at spreading more health awareness in the community on the importance of immunization in protecting community members against many infectious diseases. The MOH, supported by the wise leadership, has paid utmost attention to the Expanded Immunization Program since its launch several decades ago, whereas the government has backed this trend by linking issuance of birth certificates to parents with completion of basic doses of vaccines against immunization-targeted diseases in the aftermath of the Royal approval in1979.
This Royal approval was the main base for the strong launching of the Expanded Immunization Program in the Kingdom as the coverage of the basic vaccines increased to more than 95%, leading to a sharp decrease in the rates of the targeted diseases in this program.
In the framework of its continuous expansion and keenness to keep pace with the latest developments in the field of vaccines, the Expanded Immunization Program used the compact vaccines with the aim of reducing the number of injections given to children. The program has advanced by leaps and bounds in the period between 2008 and 2013 after introducing vaccines against hepatitis A, chickenpox, and streptococcus, in addition to the cerebral meningitis and rotavirus, thanks to Allah in the first place and then to the support and patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, His Crown Prince and the Deputy Crown Prince, may Allah protect them all.
It is noted that the number of immunization-targeted diseases has reached 15 diseases in 2013 compared to 5 in 1979.
The immunization is regarded as a compound, which stimulates and strengthens the human's body immunity system to fight some diseases and epidemics that are new to them. Its benefits include helping the body to be able to resist some infectious diseases, especially the bodies of children, because they are more susceptible to diseases and epidemics due to the inability of their immune system to resist bacteria and viruses. The immunization is given to children to prevent spread of diseases that were common in the past or still active and which may cause severe complications and sometimes death.
It is noteworthy that immunization is not given to children just to save their lives, but also to give them the opportunity to grow healthy and improve their lives, given that the categories that are in need of immunization more than others are the ones suffering from chronic or immune diseases, as well as the elderly, especially in the event of a pandemic. Likewise, immunization is not restricted to children as adults also have to be vaccinated against some diseases such as: hepatitis B, smallpox, influenza, and others, and when applying an immunization system in the community, the cost of treatment will be reduced significantly.
A report released by the information center stressed that development of immunization is done according to the highest standards of safety. The report noted that immunization, like all other medicines, has side effects, which may vary according to its type, but there are general symptoms experienced with majority of vaccines such as: headache, high temperature, pain, swelling, redness at the injection site, pain in muscles and joints and skin rash.