Experts warn of a “child health crisis,” as new research reveals one of the biggest sustained reversals in global vaccination coverage.
Tens of millions of children are vulnerable to preventable diseases as immunization rates have continued to fall since Covid-19, according to UN figures.
Some 25 million children are at risk for diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and polio, 6 million more than in 2019 and the highest number since 2008, according to estimates by the World Health Organization and Unicef, the UN agency for children, published Friday.
Nearly two-thirds (62%) of children who did not receive any vaccine in 2021 lived in 10 countries, all low- and middle-income countries except Brazil.
Niklas Danielson, a senior immunization specialist at Unicef, said the situation was “extremely serious” and exacerbated by drought and rising malnutrition rates. “I see this as a child health crisis,” he said.
Nearly 25 million children missed their first measles vaccine in 2021, 5.3 million more than in 2019. 14.7 million more did not receive the second required dose. And 3.5 million more children missed the first dose of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which protects against cervical cancer later in life, last year compared to in 2019.
Inadequate immunization coverage has already caused deaths and caused preventable outbreaks of measles and polio in the past 12 months, UN agencies said.
Dr Kate O’Brien, director of the WHO Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biological Products, said 2021 had not been a year of “recovery” but of “further setbacks” in immunization programs after the confinements established worldwide in 2020..
She said, “When [vaccinations] they are not given, there are tens of millions of children and adolescents, as well as pregnant women and adults, who do not receive vaccines … and there are people who suffer serious health consequences. People have lost their lives as a result of vaccine-preventable diseases. “
There were lifelong consequences for those recovering from some illnesses, he added. Children who get measles are more susceptible to other diseases, including pneumonia, up to a year later. Meningitis can cause deafness, blindness and can have long-term neurological consequences.
Reasons for the decline in vaccine coverage include an increase in the number of displaced people, which makes it difficult to deploy immunization services.
Disinformation on the Internet and conspiracy theories about vaccines also contributed, the researchers said, as well as the enormous stress that health services have suffered since the Covid pandemic.
Jennifer Requejo, head of global health data at Unicef, said: “The setbacks are alarming.”
In Africa, he said: “There is a risk of famine in countries like Ethiopia, food insecurity levels are rising due to the war in Ukraine, and also with Covid there are service interruptions as well as economic challenges to the which many countries face…. These are worrying trends together. “