The Covid-19 crisis and misinformation are behind the largest continuous decline in childhood vaccinations against other diseases in almost three decades, according to a report by the World Health Organization and Unicef published this Thursday.
The proportion of children who received all three doses of the diphtheria, tetanus, and polio (DTP) vaccine fell from 86% in 2019 to just 81% in 2021. This vaccine is used as a key indicator of coverage of vaccination worldwide, and this decline in 2020 and 2021 follows a decade of improvements.
“This is a red alert for children’s health. We are witnessing the largest continuous decline in childhood immunization in a generation,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement. “The consequences will be measured in the number of lives.”
Vaccination coverage too low
Of the 25 million children who missed one or more doses of this DTP vaccine in 2021, 18 million did not receive any doses, most of them in low- and middle-income countries. The reasons for this drop are multiple: conflicts, increased misinformation, and problems with the supply or continuity of care linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.
2021 was expected to start to catch up after lockdowns, but instead vaccination rates continued to decline in all world regions.
This lack of coverage has led to preventable outbreaks of measles and polio in the last 12 months, according to the report.
“We must put on day”
The bad news comes when malnutrition rates are on the rise. A malnourished child already has weaker immune defenses and is therefore more likely to develop severe cases of these preventable diseases.
“We need to catch up on immunizing the millions (of children) that are missing, or we will inevitably see more epidemics, sick children and huge pressure on already overburdened health systems,” said Catherine Russell.
Source: BFM TV
