The Ministry of Health's free vaccines provide protection against 13 diseases

World Immunization Week, which covers April 24-30 every year, aims to increase public awareness about the importance of vaccination, thus protecting more children and adults from vaccine-preventable diseases, thus preventing deaths and disabilities caused by these diseases.

The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), which was launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1974 and has been continuing in Türkiye since 1981, aims to ensure equal access to life-saving vaccines for every child and to combat infectious diseases.

The free childhood vaccines administered by the Ministry of Health under this program provide protection against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles, rubella, mumps, tuberculosis, polio, hepatitis B, hepatitis A, chickenpox, haemophilus influenzae Type B and pneumococcal diseases.

"We offer our free vaccination service against 13 diseases"

Making statements about the importance of vaccination and the work carried out by the Ministry in this field, Public Health Director General Muhammed Emin Demirkol said that WHO determined the theme of this year's World Vaccination Week as "Vaccination for All is Possible for Humanity".

Drawing attention to the fact that Türkiye has been effectively implementing the Expanded Immunization Program since 1981, Demirkol reminded that the Ministry has started to administer the 6-component combination vaccine, which brings together the hepatitis B vaccine, which has been administered since 1998, and the 5-component combination vaccine, which has been administered since 2008, as well as one dose of the tetanus-diphtheria vaccine, which also contains the acellular pertussis vaccine component, in each pregnancy period, as the "tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis (Tdab)" vaccine.

Demirkol said, "Currently, our Ministry of Health offers free vaccination services to all our citizens against 13 diseases. As stated by our Minister Kemal Memişoğlu, our main goal is to reach all our citizens in a way that eliminates any hesitation."

"We have removed many diseases from our agenda thanks to vaccination"

While awareness-raising efforts for vaccination continue, Demirkol stated that there has recently been an increase in vaccine hesitancy due to the influence of false information spread on social media. In this context, while efforts are being made to provide accurate and sufficient information to citizens in all provinces within the framework of health literacy, he shared the information that vaccination training is also being provided in the Healthy Life Academies established in Healthy Life Centers.

Demirkol said, "With the free vaccination application we have been implementing since 1981, diseases that would cause major problems such as polio are no longer seen in society, this shows the power of vaccination. We have removed many diseases that have caused major problems for humanity for many years from our agenda thanks to vaccination. We definitely recommend that our citizens get these vaccines that we offer free of charge so that these do not come to our agenda again."

Emphasizing that Türkiye is a country that is shown as an example worldwide with its vaccine immunization program, Demirkol made the following assessments:

"We believe that vaccination is the foundation of a strong and healthy society. Our scientific committees and scientists underline this situation. That's why we say vaccination is a must for a strong society. We believe that the most basic way to stay healthy is the immunization program. We want all our citizens to trust only our health system and their doctors against vaccine hesitations."