The World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday revealed that they recorded a concerning decline in the number of children receiving vaccines globally.
According to a press release by UNICEF, this declined is due to the disruptions in delivery and uptake of immunization services by global pandemic COVID-19.
New data collected by WHO and UNICEF show that the disruption could retract progress made in reaching a wider range of vaccines to more children and adolescents. UNICEF stated that it is "highly concerning" because this progress was "hard-won", as and the reach was already hampered by a decade of stalling coverage.
Progress such as South Asia's regional coverage for the third dose of DTP, which was increased by 12 percent over the past 10 years, particularly across India, Nepal and Pakistan, could be undone by COVID related disruptions. Countries like Ethiopia and Pakistan that recorded significant progress are at risk of backsliding if immunization services are not resumed as soon as possible, says UNICEF.
Notably, the situation is particularly concerning for Latin America and the Caribbean, stated UNICEF. As per them, in these areas, historically high coverage has slipped over the last decade. In Brazil, Bolivia, Haiti and Venezuela, immunization coverage plummeted by at least 14 percent since 2010. These countries are now also confronting moderate to severe COVID19-related disruptions.
Improvements such as the expansion of HPV vaccine to 106 countries and greater protection for children against more diseases are in danger of lapsing. For instance, data shows that for the first time in 28 years, a substantial drop was observed in the number of children completing three doses of vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3).
“Vaccines are one of the most powerful tools in the history of public health, and more children are now being immunized than ever before,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
“But the pandemic has put those gains at risk. The avoidable suffering and death caused by children missing out on routine immunizations could be far greater than COVID-19 itself. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Vaccines can be delivered safely even during the pandemic, and we are calling on countries to ensure these essential life-saving programmes continue.”
The dangers of coronavirus threaten to cancel at least 30 measles vaccination campaigns, resulting in further outbreaks of the disease in 2020, and beyond.
Furthermore, a new UNICEF, WHO and Gavi pulse survey, conducted in collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control, the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, three-quarters of the 82 countries that responded reported COVID-19 related disruptions in their immunization programmes as of May 2020.
Some of the varying reasons for these disruptions include fear of going out, interruptions in public transport, economic hardships, restrictions on movement, or fear of being exposed to people with COVID-19. Also, in many cases, health workers unavailable due to travel restrictions or redeployment to COVID response duties as well as a lack of protective equipment.
“COVID-19 has made previously routine vaccination a daunting challenge,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “We must prevent a further deterioration in vaccine coverage and urgently resume vaccination programs before children’s lives are threatened by other diseases. We cannot trade one health crisis for another.”
As per UNICEF, though progress on immunization coverage was stalling at 85 percent for DTP3 and measles vaccines, the chances of a child born today being fully vaccinated with all the globally recommended vaccines by the age of 5 is less than 20 percent.
At a time when the global health community is working hard to recover steps taken back due to COVID-19, UNICEF and WHO are supporting countries in their efforts to reimagine immunization and rebuild stronger. Some of the areas targeted by WHO and UNICEF are;
- Restoring services so countries can safely deliver routine immunization services during the COVID-19 pandemic, by adhering to hygiene and physical distancing recommendations and providing protective equipment to health workers;
- Helping health workers communicate actively with caregivers to explain how services have been reconfigured to ensure safety;
- Rectifying coverage and immunity gaps;
- Expanding routine services to reach missed communities, where some of the most vulnerable children live.
UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) annually produce a new round of immunization coverage estimates for 195 countries, enabling a critical assessment of how well they are doing in reaching every child with life-saving vaccines. In addition to producing the immunization coverage estimates for 2019, the WHO and UNICEF estimation process revise the entire historical series of immunization data with the latest available information.
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