In three years, due to constraints on health systems or pandemic-related lockdowns, “more than a decade of advances in routine childhood immunizations have been undermined”et “Getting back on track is going to be a challenge”underlines the UNICEF report published on Wednesday, which is concerned regarding the risk of epidemics of measles or polio.
According to the UN agency, this vaccination coverage is down in 112 countries. And between 2019 and 2021, the childhood vaccination rate worldwide fell by 5 percentage points, to 81%, a level not seen since 2008: 67 million children missed out on vaccines, particularly in Africa and South Asia, and 48 million of them received no dose of any kind.
A situation that is all the more worrying as this decline occurred at the end of a decade in which “the growth of childhood vaccination was stagnating”following the massive increase of the 1980s, underlines the UN agency.
Measles cases have doubled
“Vaccines have played a really important role in enabling children to live long, healthy lives”then “any decline in vaccination rates is concerning,” said Brian Keeley, the report’s editor.
Immunizing children thus saves 4.4 million lives each year, underlines UNICEF, a number which might climb to 5.8 million if the world managed to halve the number of children deprived of essential vaccines and to achieve 90% coverage for key life-saving vaccines.
Before the introduction of the vaccine in 1963, measles killed some 2.6 million people a year, mostly children. A figure dropped to 128,000 in 2021 for this disease which today particularly worries the UN.
In three years, the vaccination rate once morest measles — so contagious that it requires 95% vaccinations in a community to achieve herd immunity — has dropped from 86 to 81%, according to the report. And the number of measles cases doubled in 2022 compared to 2021.
Falling confidence
The fall in the vaccination rate, similar for polio, diphtheria or whooping cough, also occurs in a broader context of “survival crisis” children, notes Unicef, highlighting an overlap of crises (malnutrition, impacts of climate change, poverty, etc.)
“It is increasingly difficult for health systems and governments to meet the need for vaccinations”souligne Brian Keeley.
To improve vaccination coverage, however, it is necessary “strengthen primary health care and provide frontline workers, mostly women, with the resources and support they need”insists UNICEF.
Not to mention the 67 million children deprived of vaccines during the Covid who will come out of the age group targeted by vaccinations, pleads Mr. Keeley, calling for them to a “determined remedial program”.
At the same time, while the debates around Covid have put anti-vaccines back in the spotlight, the report is concerned regarding a drop in confidence in vaccination in 52 out of 55 countries studied.
“A worrying warning sign”
“These data are a worrying warning signal”warned UNICEF boss Catherine Russell in a statement.
“Confidence in routine immunization must not be a casualty of the pandemic too, or large numbers of children will soon die of measles, diphtheria or other diseases. preventable”.
In half of these 55 countries, vaccine confidence “notoriously changeable” remains above 80%, however tempers Unicef.
And despite this mistrust, “there is reason for optimism that services are resuming in a number of countries”says Brian Keeley, referring to “encouraging” preliminary data for vaccinations in 2022.
More “even if we manage to get back to where we were before the pandemic, hopefully in a few years”it will still be necessary to make progress to vaccinate those who were deprived of their injections already before the Covid, he insists.
