Data published by the United Nations health and children’s agencies indicate that the routine vaccination of children is picking up again after a dramatic drop during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Four million more children received routine childhood vaccines last year, compared to 2021, which World Health Organization vaccine chief Kate O’Brien describes as a good news story.
“On average, countries around the world are recovering and immunizing toward the level of immunization that was achieved before the pandemic hit.”
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus agreed, describing the data as encouraging, but warning that “global and regional averages don’t tell the whole story and mask severe and persistent inequities.”
“When countries and regions lag, children pay the price,” he added.
Despite the progress, 20.5 million children missed out on one or more routine jabs in 2022. That is down from 24.4 million a year earlier, but still well above the 18.4 million who missed out in 2019, before the pandemic hit.
The WHO and UNICEF voiced particular concern over lagging vaccination against measles – one of the world’s most infectious diseases.
“Beneath the positive trend lies a grave warning,” UNICEF chief Catherine Russel said in a statement. “Until more countries mend the gaps in routine immunization coverage, children everywhere will remain at risk of contracting and dying from diseases we can prevent.”
Last year, 83 percent of children received a first measles vaccine dose during their first year of life, up from 81 percent coverage in 2021, but down from the 86 percent achieved before the pandemic.
Among the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is the damage to the routine vaccination of children that has potentially far-reaching consequences. These infectious and deadly, but thoroughly preventable diseases, could wreak havoc on public health systems and endanger young lives if the vaccination effort does not catch up to restore the previous levels that had been successful at keeping those diseases at bay.
Government and private sector must work together to continue protecting the world’s children from these diseases that had been eliminated by vaccines, but are now poised to make a deadly comeback if we do not do our jobs properly and with urgency.*
