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LONDON (Reuters) – More than one in 10 children, or 20 million people worldwide, have been absent last year from vaccines against life-threatening diseases such as measles, diphtheria and tetanus, announced Monday the World Health Organization and the Children's Fund of UNICEF.
In a report on global immunization coverage, UN agencies found that immunization levels stagnated, especially in poor countries or conflict zones.
"Vaccines are one of our most important tools for preventing epidemics and ensuring the safety of the world," said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement.
"It is often those who are most at risk – the poorest, the most marginalized, those affected by conflict or forced to leave their homes – who are constantly missing," he said. "Far too many are left behind."
The WHO / UNICEF report revealed that since 2010, immunization coverage with three doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine and one dose of measles vaccine had stagnated at around 86%.
According to the report, it was too low, as 95% coverage is usually needed to provide "collective immunity" to those who are not vaccinated.
In 2018, for example, the number of measles cases worldwide has more than doubled to nearly 350,000.
"Measles is a real-time indicator of where we still have work to do to fight preventable diseases," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. "An epidemic indicates communities that lack vaccines … (and) we must do everything in our power to vaccinate all children."
Nearly half of the world's unvaccinated children live in 16 countries: Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Iraq, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. .
According to the report, if these children get sick, they risk the most serious health consequences and are the least likely to get the treatment and care they need.
(Report by Kate Kelland, edited by Kevin Liffey)
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