Pilot Assessment of Vaccination Status Among Children in Al Qualaybya Governorate

Abstract

accination has greatly reduced the burden of infectious diseases. Only clean water, also considered to be a basic human right, performs better. Paradoxically, a vociferous ant vaccine lobby thrives today in spite of the undeniable success of vaccination programs against formerly fearsome diseases that are now rare in developed countries (Plotkin and Plotkin, 2004). Lack of access to quality health care and clean water and sanitation, under nutrition, and other preventable or treatable causes lead to the deaths of tens of thousands of children worldwide every day. However, new data show that there has been significant progress in child survival and immunization coverage in developing countries. Since 1990, there has been a decline in the under-5 mortality rate in every region in the world. The number of children under age 5 dying every year, mostly from preventable causes, has declined 28 percent, from 90 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 65 per 1,000 live births in 2008. It is estimated that 10,000 fewer children under age 5 died every day in 2008 than in 1990. New estimates from UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, and the UN Population Division show that under-5 mortality has declined steadily since 1990, and that progress has accelerated this decade. In 1990, nearly 13 million children died before their fifth birthday. By 2008, that number had been cut down to 9 million.