European Immunization Week 2009

For its fourth European Immunization Week (EIW), 20–26 April 2009, WHO/Europe leveraged innovative Internet-based viral techniques and social media to advocate for immunization across Europe.

The initiative, launched in 36 countries, was spearheaded by an animated YouTube video that aimed to spread the EIW message by word-of-mouth (virally) online. This video was also used to drive online traffic to an informative web site. Social networking sites Facebook, VKontakte and StudiVZ were used to reinforce the message.

The video was viewed more than 10 000 times in a two-week period, making it the most watched online WHO video to date.

The following countries participated: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Tajikistan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan.