Almost 70 million children were not vaccinated between 2019 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic

Nearly 70 million children were totally or partially deprived of routine immunizations between 2019 and 2021, due to healthcare closures and disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which eroded the gains made in child immunization, the United Nations reported.

“More than a decade of hard-won gains in routine childhood immunization have been eroded,” the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today in a report, adding that recovering these levels “will be a challenge ».

Of the 67 million children whose vaccinations were “severely interrupted”, 48 million did not fully receive routine vaccinations, according to UNICEF, raising fears of possible outbreaks of polio and measles.

Vaccination coverage among children decreased in 112 countries and the percentage of children vaccinated worldwide fell 5 points to 81%, a low not seen since 2008. Africa and South Asia were particularly affected.

“It is worrying that the setback during the pandemic occurred at the end of a decade in which, broadly speaking, the growth of childhood immunization had stagnated,” the report said, quoted by the AFP news agency.

Vaccines save 4.4 million lives a year, a figure that, according to the United Nations, could rise to 5.8 million by 2030 if its ambitious goals of “leaving no one behind” are met.

“Vaccines have played a huge role in enabling more children to live long and healthy lives,” said Brian Keeley, editor-in-chief of the report. “Any decline in vaccination rates is worrisome,” he said.

---

The case of measles

---

Before the introduction of a vaccine in 1963, measles killed an estimated 2.6 million people each year, mostly children. By 2021, that number had fallen to 128,000.

But between 2019 and 2021, the percentage of children vaccinated against measles fell from 86% to 81%, and the number of cases in 2022 doubled compared to 2021.

The drop in vaccination rates could be compounded by other crises, Keeley warned, from climate change to food insecurity.

“There are more and more conflicts, economic stagnation in many countries, climate emergencies, etc,” he said. “All this makes it increasingly difficult for health systems and countries to meet vaccination needs.”

UNICEF called on governments to “redouble their commitment to increase funding for immunization”, with a focus on “catching up” for those who missed their vaccines.

The report also expressed concern about the decline in public confidence in vaccines, observed in 52 of the 55 countries surveyed.

“We cannot allow reliance on routine immunizations to become another casualty of the pandemic,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.

“Otherwise, the next wave of deaths could be more children with measles, diphtheria, or other preventable diseases.”

Vaccine confidence may be “volatile and time-specific,” according to the report, noting that “further analysis will be necessary to determine whether the results are indicative of a longer-term trend” beyond the pandemic.

Overall, he said support for vaccines “remains relatively strong.”