Vaccines
WHO China
Infant receiving vaccination.
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Vaccines

Vaccines in China

Immunization is the process whereby a person is made resistant to an infectious disease, typically usually by the administration of a vaccine. The agent in a vaccine stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as foreign, destroy it, and "remember" it. In this way, the immune system can more easily recognize and destroy any of these microorganisms in future encounters.

The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in China is provided at no cost to eligible-aged children. The EPI currently protects children from 12 vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs): measles, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, tuberculosis, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rubella, mumps, Japanese encephalitis, and Meningococcal meningitis. 

Technical links

WHO/Yoshi Shimizu
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99% reduction in vaccine preventable disease incidence

among those diseases included in the Expanded Programme on Immunization, launched in 1978.
WHO/Yoshi Shimizu
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Achievements in wild-polio, maternal and infant tetanus elimination

China was certified polio-free (of the wild-polio virus) in 2000. In 2012 China was verified for maternal and infant tetanus elimination.

4 million deaths prevented

Since the launch of the Expanded Programme on Immunization in 1978, we estimate that over 4 million deaths have been prevented. More than 300 million cases of polio, pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B and measles have been averted.
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