Childhood vaccination coverage has started to recover since COVID-19, but not everywhere, UN says

LONDON – Efforts to vaccinate children around the world against deadly diseases such as measles and diphtheria will start picking up in 2022. The historic adversity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, According to new figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

But the recovery remains uneven, with strong recoveries in large low-middle-income countries such as India and Indonesia masking ongoing problems in many small and poor countries, officials said in a statement Tuesday. said in

In 2022, 20.5 million children will not receive at least one routine childhood vaccine, down from 24.4 million in 2021.

Despite progress, that number is still higher than in 2019, when 18.4 million children were not fully protected.

This number is estimated from 183 countries using data based on coverage of three doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, children who received no vaccine and children who received neither vaccine. are also included. Dose required for protection.

Global coverage was 86% before the pandemic and 84% in 2022.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the numbers were “encouraging” but feared the most vulnerable were being left behind.

“Children pay the price when countries and regions fall behind,” he says.

Of the 73 countries that experienced significant declines in term insurance enrollment during the pandemic, 34 – including countries such as Angola and Syria – have seen no improvement or worsened since then.

Fifteen people have recovered to pre-pandemic levels and 24 are on the way to recovery, according to the WHO and UNICEF.

The authorities also said that measles vaccination is not recovering as quickly, with 21.9 million children globally missing the first dose in 2022, an increase of 2.7 million from 2019 and 13.3 million receiving the second dose. I warned that I would not be able to receive the inoculation of

In low-income countries, measles prevalence actually continued to decline last year, falling to 66% in 2021, compared with 67% in 2021, according to Dr Kate O’Brien, WHO Director of Immunization. Measles outbreaks are already on the rise.

“If children are not vaccinated, it means they are not immune to life-threatening diseases,” O’Brien told Reuters in an interview. “Children are going to die.

Only HPV vaccination coverage, which prevents cervical cancer, has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

However, the rate is still below the 90% target, 67% in high-income countries and 55% in low- and middle-income countries where the vaccine has been introduced.

WHO and UNICEF, together with Gabi, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other partners, launched an effort earlier this year to help countries catch up on childhood vaccinations.Reuters