The Expanded Programme on Immunization, or EPI, was launched by the World Health Organization in 1974, to build on the momentum to eradicate smallpox For 50 years, it has been a key driver of global health and childhood survival.
Some of you may know that our South-East Asia Region is a significant part of the history of the eradication of smallpox.
Daniel Tarantola and Alan Schnur - a medical officer and an epidemiologist at WHO - were working in rural Bangladesh in 1975. That year, they travelled to the southern part of Bangladesh where they met a toddler named Rahima Banu.
Rahima is the last known person in the world to be infected with naturally occurring deadly smallpox.
After 3000 years, and 300 million deaths in the 20th century alone, smallpox was finally defeated - and it happened in our region, in Bangladesh.
This is the power of immunization and vaccination.
Rahima is 51 years old today, and still living in southern Bangladesh.
The EPI 'has saved lives, reduced or eradicaed deadly and disabling infectious diseases, and has improved health. With its universal access philosophy, the EPI has ensured that children everywhere are entitled to life-saving vaccines, regardless of socioeconomic status or location.
It is both incredible and wonderful that every country now has a national immunization programme.
In terms of public health impact, we now know that vaccines are one of the most cost-effective, successful, and safe public health interventions.
The ambitious vision of building a systematic, coordinated, and fundamentally equitable global programme has made the concept of immunisation for all people ‘humanly possible’.
Initially, the focus was on six vaccine-preventable diseases:
- Tuberculosis
- diphtheria
- pertussis
- tetanus
- polio, and
- Measles
Over decades, the EPI has expanded along with advances in vaccinology and immunisation practice. It now includes 13 universally recommended vaccinations across the life-course,as well as 17 further vaccines with context-dependent recommendations.
In our region, over the last 50 years, the EPI is estimated to have averted 38 million deaths. This includes an astonishing 36 million deaths prevented in children younger than 5 years. 2.6 billion years of full health was gained during this time.
Vaccination has accounted for 22% of the reduction in infant mortality in South-East Asia since 1974.Wild poliovirus infections have not happened for over 13 years, maternal and neonatal tetanus have been eliminated as a public health problem, hepatitis B has been controlled in 6 out of 11 countries, and 5 countries have eliminated measles and rubella.
Laboratory networks for vaccine preventable diseases have increased - from 5 laboratories in 1995, to 126 in 2024.
In responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, close to 3.5 billion doses of vaccines were administered.
From 2020 to August 2024, 23 new vaccines were introduced, and our region has become a hub for vaccine production, manufacturing almost half the global supply.
I hope you will take a moment to reflect on this, and appreciate these successes – because these are your successes.
As we look back at 50 years of the EPI with pride, we also need to look forward. In doing so, let us ask ourselves how do we protect our investments, close existing gaps, make immunization systems more resilient, and strengthen our collaboration.
To sustain the legacy of 50 years EPI, the focus must be on tailored approaches, identified in consultation with the affected communities – local solutions for local realities. No matter how challenging or remote the setting is, we will need to find new ways to reach the children and individuals most at risk of life-threatening diseases.
I, and all my colleagues at the South-East Asia Regional Office, remain committed to supporting our countries to increase immunization coverage, and to ensure every person has access to vaccines for their well-being and good health.
Thank you.