Öz
One of the most important components of children's right to healthy life is vaccination and protection against diseases. Immunization services are among the important community health interventions for children in terms of prevention of vaccine preventable diseases and deaths. With the introduction of the Extended Immunization Program in Turkey in 1981, activities on immunization have progressed rapidly and have continued to the present day. The objectives of the Extended Immunization Program are to reach vulnerable age groups before they become infected and to prevent disease, disability and death from vaccine-preventable diseases. One of the most important objectives of the program is to achieve and maintain a 97% vaccination rate for each antigen throughout the country. The current national vaccination program in our country includes vaccines developed against 13 infectious diseases including diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, tuberculosis, measles, hepatitis B, hemophilus influenzae Type B, rubella, mumps, pneumococcal, hepatitis A and varicella. In addition to child age vaccination, there are also vaccination administrations for adults and individuals in risk groups. In our country, intensive vaccination programs have been implemented in recent years in accordance with the changing conditions such as local epidemiological changes, migration, import risk, epidemic risk and risk increase according to age groups and changes have been made in the vaccination schedule. When evaluating the current vaccination program, it is necessary to take into account epidemiological and surveillance studies related to infectious agents. Depending on the developments in the field of vaccination, it is important to update the national immunization schedules, to reflect the developments in practice and to ensure the continuity of the immunization program.