LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) – Nearly 25 million children worldwide missed the routine vaccinations that protect against deadly diseases last year, as the effects of the pandemic continue to disrupt health care globally.
According to new figures released by UNICEF and the World Health Organization, there are two million more children than in 2020, when COVID-19 caused lockdowns around the world, and six million more than pre-pandemic in 2019.
UNICEF described the decline in vaccination coverage as the biggest sustained backslide in childhood vaccination in a generation, with coverage rates not seen since the early 2000s.
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Many expected that there would be some improvement in 2021 after the first year of the pandemic, but the situation actually got worse, raising questions about the catch-up efforts.
“I want to pass on the urgency,” UNICEF’s senior immunization specialist Niklas Danielsson told Reuters. “This is a child health crisis.”
The economic slowdown and stress on health systems led to a rapid recovery for routine vaccination in 2021, along with a focus on COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in 2021, the agency said.
The data shows a decline in coverage in each area, estimated using data on the take-up of the three-dose diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3) jab and includes both children who were absolutely Also don’t get jabs and those who somehow miss out of the three doses needed for protection. Globally, coverage fell 5 percent last year to 81 percent.
The data shows that the number of “zero-dose” children who received no vaccination increased by 37% between 2019 and 2021, from 13 to 18 million children, mostly from low- and middle-income countries. were in
More than 90% of children require vaccination to prevent outbreaks of many diseases. There have been reports of rising cases of vaccine-preventable diseases in recent months, including a 400% increase in measles cases in Africa in 2022. Read more
The data shows that in 2021, 24.7 million children did not receive the first dose of measles vaccine, and 14.7 million children did not receive the required second dose. Coverage was 81%, the lowest since 2008.
The numbers are worked out using data from national health systems in 177 countries.
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Reporting by Jennifer Rigby Editing by Raisa Kasolowski
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