In a new report published on Friday, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said their data showed 25 million children failed to get vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis last year, an indicator of childhood immunization coverage, continuing a decline trend that started in 2019.
“This is a red alert for children’s health,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director.
“We are witnessing the largest sustained decline in childhood vaccination in a generation,” he said, adding that the consequences will be measured in lives lost.
The data showed that the vast majority of children who failed to be vaccinated lived in developing countries, namely Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and the Philippines. While vaccine coverage declined in every region of the world, the worst results were seen in East Asia and the Pacific. Experts said this “historic setback” in vaccination coverage was particularly worrying as it occurred as rates of severe malnutrition rose. Malnourished children usually have weaker immune systems and infections such as measles can often prove fatal for them.
“The convergence of a hunger crisis with a growing vaccination gap threatens to create the conditions for a child survival crisis,” the UN said.
Scientists said low vaccine coverage rates had already led to outbreaks of preventable diseases such as measles and polio. In March 2020, WHO and partners called on countries to suspend polio eradication efforts amid the accelerating COVID-19 pandemic. Since then there have been dozens of polio outbreaks in more than 30 countries. “This is particularly tragic as enormous progress was made in the two decades before the COVID pandemic in improving childhood vaccination rates worldwide,” said Helen Bedford, a professor of child health at University College London, who was not associated with the report. UN. He said the news was shocking but not surprising, noting that immunization services are often an “early victim” of major social or economic disasters. Dr David Elliman, a consultant pediatrician at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in Britain, said it was crucial to reverse the declining trend in vaccinations among children.
“The effects of what happens in one part of the world can ripple out and affect the entire globe,” he said in a statement, noting the rapid spread of COVID-19 and, more recently, monkeypox. “Whether we act on morality or ‘enlightened self-interest,’ we must put (children) at the top of our priority list.” More