Immunization and economic development

The 1993 World Development Report (WDR) was subtitled ‘Investing in Health’ and advanced the argument that better health outcomes facilitate economic development. Even if one contests the direction of causation, correlation between better health outcomes and higher levels of economic development is not in doubt. In achieving better health outcomes, immunization is a cost-effective strategy. WHO estimates that immunization is globally capable of preventing between two and three million deaths a year. WHO’s original Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) covered diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, measles, poliomyelitis and tuberculosis and it was hoped that all children would be immunized against these diseases by 1990. Subsequently, with some country-level variations, hepatitis-B, Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib), pneumococcal conjugate and rotavirus have occasionally been added.