In a report on Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) warn of dangerous gaps in vaccine coverage. It increases the risk of outbreaks of diseases such as measles.
Last year, 84 percent of the world’s children – 108 million children – received three doses of the triple vaccine once morest diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough. This is the same proportion as the previous year. In 2022 there was a marginal increase, but today’s figures are markedly lower than before the pandemic, when coverage was 86 per cent.
– Not on the right track
– The latest trend shows that in many countries there are far too many children who are not caught, says Unicef CEO Catherine Russell.
Compared to pre-pandemic levels, there are now 2.7 million more children who are unvaccinated or under-vaccinated, according to the two UN agencies.
– We are not on the right track. Global vaccine coverage has still not fully recovered from the historic decline we saw during the pandemic, says WHO vaccine manager Kate O’Brien.
– The most vulnerable in danger
The number of children who have not received any vaccines went up to 14.5 million last year, from 13.9 million in 2022 and 12.8 million in 2019, the figures presented on Monday show.
– This puts the most vulnerable children at risk.
Something that makes the concern even worse is that more than half of the unvaccinated children live in vulnerable and conflict-prone countries. Lack of access to food, safety and health services means that they are extra vulnerable to contracting diseases that can otherwise be avoided.
In such countries, there is also a greater risk that children will not receive all the shots with vaccines. 6.5 million children did not receive the third dose of the triple vaccine, which is necessary to achieve protection.
Measles worries
WHO and Unicef are also concerned regarding the backlog in vaccination once morest measles – one of the world’s most contagious diseases – at the same time as the number of outbreaks worldwide is increasing sharply.
– Measles outbreaks are the canary in the coal mine, which uncovers and exploits gaps in vaccination and affects the most vulnerable first, says WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement.
Last year, only 83 per cent of the world’s children received the first dose of measles vaccine through the health services. There are also the same number as the previous year, but a decrease from 86 per cent before the pandemic.
Only 74 percent received the required second dose, while 95 percent coverage is required to avoid outbreaks. 35 million children lack adequate protection once morest measles.
– Coverage is too low to prevent outbreaks and achieve eradication targets, says Unicef’s vaccine manager Ephrem Lemango.
103 outbreaks
He points out that 300,000 cases of the highly contagious disease were confirmed last year, a threefold increase from the previous year.
In the last five years, measles outbreaks have been registered in 103 countries. Low vaccination coverage below 80 percent is considered to be a significant underlying factor.
In 91 countries with good coverage, no outbreaks have been registered.
– The frightening thing is that almost three out of four infants live in the areas where the risk of outbreaks is highest, says Lemango.
He says that ten crisis-stricken countries – including Sudan, Yemen and Afghanistan – account for more than half of the children who have not been vaccinated once morest measles.
Joyful growth for HPV vaccine
A more positive piece of news in Monday’s report is a sharp increase in vaccination once morest the HPV virus, which can cause cervical cancer.
The vaccine still only reaches 56 percent of teenage girls in high-income countries and only 23 percent in low-income countries. Both parts are far from the target of 90 per cent coverage.
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2024-07-15 02:07:33
