About 3.7 million more children missed out on receiving basic vaccines last year over the previous year, according to data from the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children Emergency Fund, which aims to quantify the health service disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, 23 million children missed some of their vaccinations last year while an estimated 17 million were not vaccinated at all.
“Even as countries clamour to get their hands on COVID-19 vaccines, we have gone backwards on other vaccinations, leaving children at risk from devastating but preventable diseases like measles, polio, or meningitis,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a press release.
Locations with decreased vaccinations: WHO’s Southeast Asia and Eastern Mediterranean regions were the most affected. India saw a 117% increase in children not receiving a first dose of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis combined vaccine and Pakistan a 71% increase.
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The data also showed an increasing share of unvaccinated children in middle-income countries and saw a decrease in vaccination in countries in the Americas, fueled by funding shortfalls, vaccine misinformation, and instability, according to the two organizations.
A bad situation made worse: The pandemic hit at a time when the world was already losing ground on immunizing children against preventable child illness, which included an increase in measles outbreaks in recent years, said Henrietta Fore, executive director at UNICEF, in the release. Childhood vaccination rates against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, and polio had already been stagnant at 86% for several years before the pandemic.
About the author
Sara Jervingsarajerving
Sara Jerving is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE News, and Bloomberg News among others. Sara holds a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was a Lorana Sullivan fellow. She was a finalist for One World Media's Digital Media Award in 2021; a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2018; and she was part of a VICE News Tonight on HBO team that received an Emmy nomination in 2018. She received the Philip Greer Memorial Award from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2014.
