The Covid-19 crisis and misinformation are behind the largest continuous decline in childhood vaccinations once morest other diseases in almost three decades, according to a report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF released Thursday.
The proportion of children who received all three doses of the vaccine once morest diphtheria, tetanus and poliomyelitis (DTP) fell from 86% in 2019 to 81% in 2021. This vaccine is used as a key indicator of vaccination coverage across the world.
This decline recorded in 2020 and 2021 follows a decade of improvements.
“This is a red alert for children’s health. We are witnessing the largest continuous decline in childhood immunization in a generation“said Catherine Russell, director general of Unicef, in a press release.The consequences will be measured in number of lives.“
Some 25 million children missed one or more doses of this DTP vaccine in 2021. This is 2 million more than in 2020, and 6 million more than in 2019.
Of those 25 million, 18 million received no dose, the majority of them in middle- or low-income countries – including India, Nigeria, Indonesia, Ethiopia and the Philippines.
The reasons for this fall are multiple: conflicts, increased misinformation and problems with the supply or continuity of care linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was hoped that 2021 would start to catch up following the lockdowns but instead vaccination rates continued to decline in all regions of the world.
This undercoverage has led to preventable outbreaks of measles and polio over the past 12 months, the report said.