SISMUN II

Committee: World Health Organization

Topic: Access to Vaccines
I.
Brief Committee Overview
The World Health Organization (WHO) began on April 7th, 1948 when their constitution
came in place creating an organization that was to deal with health issues causing global damage.
The WHO was founded after the spread of epidemic diseases in Europe and the continuing
efforts to establish an organization whose focus would be diseases by the Pan American Health
Organization (PAHO) which resulted in the constitution of the WHO. The first meeting to be
held was the summer of that year, 1948, in which they met in Geneva to establish the priorities of
the organization. Among those priorities were nutrition, combating diseases like malaria and
tuberculosis, and sanitary engineering. However, the scope of the WHO was not limited to just
those priorities, rather they were also involved in prevention of diseases and efforts to control
endemic syphilis, leprosy, and trachoma. From then until now, the WHO has continued to focus
on a variety of global health issues.
II.

Statement of the Problem

Immunization is the process in which a person is administered with vaccines to become

immune and/or resistant to diseases. A vaccine is a biologically prepared substance that assists
with immunity to diseases by improving the immune system. Vaccines have been a gateway to
cure many life threatening diseases like polio. Even so, some people are highly hesitant about
getting vaccines or allowing their children to receive vaccines. Concurring to the WHOs
research, 1 in 5 children around the glove still do not receive immunizations. In addition, it is
estimated that 1.5 million people die each year due to no immunizations which could be
prevented with existing vaccines. Hesitancy of vaccines is mainly owed to the fact that people
have safety concerns and hold negative beliefs that are based on myths (ex: vaccination causes

SISMUN II
Committee: World Health Organization
Topic: Access to Vaccines
infertility in women). It is also contributed to misinterpretation of information, cost, barriers
(geographical and cultural) and mistrust in health care professionals.
III.

Past UN Action:
The UN, specifically the WHO, has taken action by implemented the Global Vaccine

Action Plan (GVAP) that began in 2011 and target to improve the vaccination rates by the year
2020. In this program, along with the WHO, there is contribution from the leadership of the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation, GAVI alliance, and the UNICEF in which all are committed to the
goals of GVAP. Other actions taken by the UN is the Global Vaccine Summit which centralized
its focus on the protection of children from tetanus and measles. Even with great efforts made,
past and present, data shows the same 1 out of 5 children remaining unvaccinated.
IV.

Possible solutions:
Possible solutions to solve vaccine hesitancy are to bring awareness through educating

parents about the benefits of vaccines, monitoring vaccine rates in all areas (rural and urban) to
see what strategies are working best, and creating conversations in social media. Although results
will not rise in such short time, bringing awareness is a good way to begin to settle the issue of
whether or not vaccines are healthy. Other possible solutions are to create educational programs
that will not only be demonstrated in densely populated areas but also in rural areas that
generally get left out of the picture. Many times, rural areas are so isolated that providing quality
physicians to administer vaccines is a challenge as well.
V.
Questions to consider:
What contributes to vaccine hesitancy, and how can people be convinced that vaccines
are in their best interest and their childrens best interest?

SISMUN II
Committee: World Health Organization
Topic: Access to Vaccines
How could the concerns of vaccine safety be settled to establish a common ground of

knowledge?
What strategies work best to develop new vaccines and distribute them globally?
How could geographic barriers be overcome to provide vaccines to isolated

communities?
How could cultural barriers be overcome to make communities more open to vaccinating
their children?