China Expanded Program on Immunization

China's national childhood vaccination program, launched in 1978 in response to the World Health Organization's 1974 call for member states to establish immunization programs offering a minimum set of vaccines, initially covering four: BCG, oral polio vaccine, measles vaccine and DTwP for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. Coverage of these core vaccines reached the 85 percent goal first at the provincial level in 1988, then county level in 1990 and township level in 1995, and by 1990 China had achieved universal childhood immunization, meaning every province and county in the country had reached 85 percent coverage for one year olds. Between 1978 and 1995 the program's expansion was linked to a 98 percent decrease in mortality and incidence from the major vaccine preventable diseases it targeted: poliomyelitis, measles, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis.