This year’s World Immunization Week (April 24-30) carries a simple but powerful message: “For every generation, vaccines work.” It is a timely reminder for Korea, a country whose public health success was shaped by vaccination. Although Korea is now seen as an advanced economy with strong health institutions, this confidence was built over decades of sustained investment in prevention, public trust and collective action. Vaccination has been a foundation of that progress.
I have seen that transformation firsthand. As the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific region, I had the privilege of helping lead the effort that resulted in our region being certified polio-free in 2000. In 2025, countries across the Western Pacific marked 25 years since that milestone and renewed their commitment to finishing the job globally. Korea’s story was an important part of that achievement. What once required mass campaigns, vigilance and political commitment is now easy to take for granted precisely because it succeeded so well.
That is why World Immunization Week should not be treated only as a celebration. It should also be a warning against complacency.
Polio remains one of the clearest examples of what vaccination can achieve. In the Western Pacific region, partnership, science, surveillance and community engagement enabled both stopping indigenous wild poliovirus transmission and sustaining that success for a quarter century. It was also a reminder that public health victories of this scale are never the work of governments alone. They depend on broad collaboration across the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, including WHO, UNICEF, Rotary and other partners, as well as the sustained engagement of civil society.
But the global fight is not over. Wild poliovirus still circulates in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and poliovirus has also been detected in wastewater in New York in 2022 and in London as recently as this March, even though both countries were certified polio-free decades ago. The lesson is clear: no country can assume that past victories guarantee future safety.
That lesson extends well beyond polio. Vaccines save lives, but only when health systems can reach people consistently and at scale. In stable times, this can seem almost automatic. In reality, it is fragile. Conflict, displacement, attacks on health care, disrupted supply chains, and weakened surveillance can quickly undermine the conditions that make routine immunization possible. In March, WHO warned that escalating conflict in the Middle East was closing health facilities, disrupting ambulances and medicine delivery, displacing families into overcrowded shelters, and increasing the risk of communicable disease outbreaks. These are not distant tragedies with no relevance to Korea. They are reminders that public health gains can erode far more quickly than many people imagine.
Viruses do not respect borders. This is not a slogan but a practical reality of an interconnected world. As WHO officials noted during the Western Pacific’s 25-year polio-free commemoration, recent outbreaks in Papua New Guinea and the now-closed outbreak in Indonesia show that sustained immunity, strong surveillance, and cross-border vigilance remain essential. The same principle applies to all vaccine-preventable diseases. Korea’s safety depends not only on domestic systems, but also on whether the wider region and world can prevent outbreaks, detect threats early, and respond effectively.
Korea has strong reasons to lead. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency continues to run a national preventive vaccination program covering children, pregnant women, and older adults. Its 2024 white paper notes that vaccination coverage among six-year-olds has risen for three consecutive years. These are not small achievements. They reflect public trust, institutional competence, and a recognition that prevention is one of the wisest investments any society can make.
But leadership today means more than maintaining good domestic statistics. It means protecting public confidence in vaccines amid fatigue, misinformation, and distraction. It means continuing to support international immunization efforts, because helping vulnerable communities abroad is also part of protecting health security at home. And it means recognizing that governments cannot do this work alone. Health professionals, educators, civil society groups, community leaders, and the media all have a role in explaining why vaccines still matter — not only in moments of crisis, but before a crisis arrives.
Korea has every reason to be proud of its achievements. The disappearance of polio from daily life is one of the great public health successes of our time. But success should not breed complacency. Countries that best protect future generations see prevention as a long-term civic commitment, not a temporary campaign.
World Immunization Week offers a chance to say that clearly. Vaccines worked for previous generations. They must continue working for the next one. Korea, having seen what sustained immunization can achieve, should help lead that effort — with confidence at home, solidarity abroad, and the wisdom not to take hard-won progress for granted.
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Dr. Shigeru Omi
Dr. Shigeru Omi, former Regional Director of the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region, is chair of the Japan Anti-Tuberculosis Association and Rotary Polio Eradication Ambassador. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. — Ed.
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