The UN campaign will target 20 countries where three-quarters of the children who missed vaccinations in 2021 live.
The United Nations on Monday launched a campaign to revive childhood vaccination campaigns around the world, which have seen a dangerous slowdown during the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in a resurgence of contagious diseases such as measles and poliomyelitis.
The World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the international organization Gavi (which works to ensure better access to vaccines for children in poor countries) and the Gates Foundation are part of this campaign of “big catch-up”.
“Millions of children and adolescents, especially in low-income countries, have missed out on (the opportunity to receive) life-saving vaccinations, while epidemics of these deadly diseases have increased,” said the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“Catching up is a top priority. No child should die of a vaccine-preventable disease,” he added.
Failures for 25 million children
Vaccination rates declined in more than a hundred countries at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, more than 25 million children missed at least one vaccination, including 18 million who completely missed routine routine vaccinations, according to WHO.
“Outbreaks of preventable diseases, such as measles, diphtheria, poliomyelitis and yellow fever have become more frequent and more severe,” the WHO said.
The “big catch up” campaign will focus on 20 countries where three-quarters of the world’s children who missed vaccines in 2021 live.
These twenty countries are Afghanistan, Angola, Brazil, Cameroon, Chad, North Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia, Madagascar, Mexico, Mozambique, Burma, Tanzania and Vietnam.
A 5% increase in infant mortality
According to WHO vaccines chief Kate O’Brien, the “sharp decline” in vaccinations during the Covid-19 pandemic has followed “almost a decade of stagnant progress”.
It is not only about correcting the disruptions resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, but also about confronting “the systemic challenges in vaccination”, she told the press.
The 5% decline in vaccinations during the pandemic led to “an increase of at least 5% in infant mortality”, she added.
A risk of measles epidemics
Kate O’Brien has warned of outbreaks of measles, a highly contagious and potentially deadly disease. When the immunization rate drops, it leads to “explosive epidemics”, she pointed out.
For the director general of Unicef Catherine Russell, the issue goes beyond the prevention of contagious diseases.
“Routine routine immunizations usually mark children’s first entry into their healthcare system, and children who miss their first vaccinations are at greater risk of long-term exclusion from healthcare,” she explained. If we delay vaccinating these children, “the risk of more deadly epidemics increases”, she warned.
