PLENARY 1 – Protect: To Leave No One Behind 

LEARNING DISCUSSION 

09 November 2023 

09:00 – 09:40H 

Speaker:

Kim Mulholland 

Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia 

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK 

Description:

Since the Child Survival Revolution of the 1980s which was built on GOBI (Growth monitoring, Oral rehydration, Breast feeding and Immunization) and led by UNICEF and WHO, the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) has been a major component of global efforts to improve child survival.   Initially built on Diphtheria/Tetanus/Pertussis (DTP) vaccine with measles and polio added during the 1980s, EPI has always been a data driven programme, with the most important data being national vaccine coverage. Critics have long pointed out that unless coverage is very high, EPI programmes risk increasing inequities within a country by failing to reach those children at highest risk. We have made progress, but there is far to go.