Vaccines save millions of lives every year. They reduce the risks of getting a disease by working with the body’s natural defences to build protection against vaccine-preventable diseases. Immunisation – the process of protecting the human body against infectious disease, typically through vaccination administration – currently prevents 3.5 million to 5 million deaths every year from vaccine-preventable diseases like diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), influenza, and measles. Vaccines are also very important in preventing and controlling infectious disease outbreaks.

In 2024, MSF vaccinated over 7 million people as part of routine vaccine delivery, preventative vaccine delivery, and in response to disease outbreaks, and is working to improve access to vaccines, especially in some of the most fragile humanitarian contexts in which we work.

And yet, although they are one of the most successful and widespread public health tools used to protect against diseases, vaccines are not always affordable, adapted to context, or accessible to everyone who needs them. And, in some cases, there are simply no vaccines available yet to protect against certain diseases.

This World Immunisation Week – which takes place every year from 24-30 April and brings together a diverse and broad coalition of partners to promote the use of vaccines to protect people against disease – MSF teams in Pakistan, France, South Sudan, Nigeria, and Sudan share access and innovation advancements that, if achieved in the years to come, could result in lifesaving vaccines reaching more people around the world.

This is an evergreen communication to develop, educate, and engage audiences on vaccine access issues alongside solutions we can imagine through innovation and access work.