The number of children vaccinated worldwide, which has already stagnated for 10 years, has dropped alarmingly due to the coronavirus epidemic, two UN agencies warned on Thursday.
The vaccination rate for DTP3 (diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough) and measles was already stagnating at 85%, with 14 million children not vaccinated per year, mainly in Africa, before the appearance of the coronavirus at the end of 2019, recall the WHO (Organization World Health Organization) and UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund).
The pandemic has had an impact on vaccination campaigns in three quarters of the 82 countries which were the subject of an online study carried out in June by these two agencies and the Alliance for the vaccine (Gavi).
The report is concerned about the drop in DTP3 vaccination in the first four months of the year, mainly due to transport difficulties, financial restrictions caused by the pandemic or the fear of contamination.
The coronavirus crisis threatens to undermine the efforts made over the past decade to vaccinate more children worldwide, according to data collected by the two institutions. At least thirty vaccination campaigns against measles are threatened around the world, point out the agencies.
Alarming decline in the number of children receiving lifesaving vaccines around the world during # COVID19: WHO and @UN UNICEF
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The coronavirus crisis threatens to undermine the efforts made over the past decade to vaccinate more children worldwide, according to data collected by the two institutions. At least thirty vaccination campaigns against measles are threatened around the world, point out the agencies.
"A disturbing challenge"
"Vaccines are one of the most powerful tools in the history of health, and more children than ever are now immunized," WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. "But the pandemic threatens this progress," he said, calling on the countries to ensure the continuation of their immunization policy.
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"Covid-19 has turned what used to be routine immunization into a worrisome challenge," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. "We must resume immunization programs urgently before the lives of children are threatened by other diseases. We cannot trade one health crisis for another, ”she said.
In June, the High Health Authority called for an urgent resumption of the campaigns stopped during the confinement. According to her, 44,000 infants aged 3 to 18 months had not been vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, whooping cough, meningitis due to the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae type b and hepatitis B.
