Essential programme on immunization in WHO South-East Asia: A five-decade journey of saving millions of lives & ending diseases.

Vaccination is one of the most successful and cost-effective interventions designed by science which has helped in preventing millions of deaths, especially in children. The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) was established by World Health Organization (WHO) in 1974 to develop immunization programmes throughout the world with polio, measles, diphtheria, tetanus, tuberculosis and whooping cough. The WHO South-East Asia Region (SEAR) has a disproportionately high burden of infectious diseases and has greatly benefitted from the EPI as compared to other regions with more than 90 per cent of the population having access to vaccines.