Vaccination serves as the most effective and foundational pillar of infection prevention at all life stages.  A comprehensive lifecourse immunisation strategy which includes concrete targets for maternal immunisation, and their infant protection, adolescents, all individuals in clinical groups at risk, and older adults’ vaccination coverage against respiratory infections is of significant importance. This Call for Action articulates a shared vision of a Europe where every person is protected from vaccine-preventable diseases at every stage of life. It aims to strengthen population resilience across the life course by reducing avoidable reliance on reactive healthcare and advancing preventive, value-based approaches that enable individuals to sustain health, autonomy, and self-direction.    

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Life Course Immunisation (LCI) presents an advocacy framework for protection against vaccine-preventable diseases throughout the course of our lives. Investing in a life-course approach in national immunisation programmes brings wide health and economic benefits, protects all ages from vaccine-preventable infectious diseases, and reduces disease burden, better preparing us all to live longer and more productive lives. In a context where older persons comprise the world’s fastest-growing age group, maintaining a healthy, fit older population will become very important for individuals. LCI strategies are a cost-effective means of improving health throughout the duration of adult life. Adult vaccination not only reduces the incidence and severity of infectious diseases but also reduces the incidence and severity of comorbidities with noncommunicable conditions.

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Immunization is the greatest success story of the twentieth century. Vaccines eliminated most of the childhood diseases that used to cause millions of deaths, making possible a life without disabilities caused by certain communicable diseases like polio for the first time in human history. In the twenty first century, though, the fruits of modern medicine are not reaching some of the most vulnerable, making global health insecure against vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) once more.

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Pharmacists play a vital role in maintaining and promoting public health. All pharmacists have a responsibility to participate in global, national, state, regional, and institutional efforts to promote public health and to integrate the goals of those initiatives into their practices.

Furthermore, pharmacists have a responsibility to work with public health planners to ensure their involvement in public health policy decision-making and in the planning, development, and implementation of public health efforts.

ASHP Statement on the Pharmacist’s Role in Public Health