Statement by Steven Allen, UNICEF Regional Director of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States

Your Royal Highness Crown Princess Mathilde of Belgium, Madam Minister, Madam Regional Director of WHO, Mr. Commissioner of Health & Consumer Policy of EC, Mr. Director of ECDC, distinguished representatives of Ministries of Health, dear participants - sincere thanks to WHO for organizing this launch to mark the European Immunization Week 2011 and inviting UNICEF, and to the UN Office in Brussels for hosting the event in their premises.

UNICEF wholeheartedly supports European Immunization week as an annual opportunity to emphasize the importance of this life saving technology. It is also a reminder of our partnership to ensure children everywhere do not die of a vaccine preventable disease.

This year’s theme, ‘shared solutions to common threats’, is both pertinent and timely in the CEECIS Region. We have identified that routine immunization services are no longer performing adequately which in turn has led to the re-emergence of vaccine-preventable diseases like polio and measles.

The large polio outbreak in Central Asia last year underlines the consequences of a failure of routine immunization.

While there are numerous causes for immunization coverage falling below target, I will identify one: public trust in immunization is decreasing and that is a key concern.

As well, in an era of increasing global migration and mobility, there is more than enough evidence that infectious diseases do not recognize borders – the Central Asian polio virus came from India for example.

Therefore outbreaks occurring in one place have the potential to rapidly spread to others, revealing both the mutual interdependence and vulnerability of all countries, developing and industrialized alike. This makes it even more critical that routine immunization coverage is maintained and we share solutions to common threats, the theme of this year’s Immunization Week.

We need to be transparent and we need to share information no matter how difficult or embarrassing the issue is. Also we need to act together to address common public health challenges. An excellent example of that was provided by Central Asian countries and Russian Federation last year, to stop the outbreak of polio and to maintain the polio-free status of the region.

A similar collaboration is needed to address the measles outbreaks mainly in the Western part of the region.

UNICEF supports knowledge generation and sharing best practices and lessons learned among countries, as part of our efforts on strengthening the health systems to deliver equitable, accessible, sustainable and high quality immunization services.

We are also leading an initiative to strengthen health communication capacities of countries to promote immunization, rebuild public trust and effectively manage crises.

As in the past, UNICEF Regional Office and the Country Offices extend their full support to the European Immunization Week 2011 to raise awareness on immunization, as well as to foster shared debate and action.

Thank you again for the opportunity to take part in this event, and please be assured of UNICEF’s continuing support and collaboration as a key stakeholder in immunization in this region.