67 million children have been deprived at least partially of vaccines because of the pandemic

The effects of Covid-19 are still being felt. Between 2019 and 2021, 67 million children were completely or partially deprived of life-saving vaccines due to pandemic-related disruptions, the UN said in a report released on Wednesday (April 19). In three years, due to the constraints suffered by the health systems or the confinements imposed on the population, “more than a decade of advances in routine childhood immunizations have been undermined” And “Getting back on track is going to be a challenge”underlines the report, which is concerned about the risk of epidemics of measles or polio.

According to the UN agency, this vaccination coverage is down in 112 countries. Between 2019 and 2021, the childhood vaccination rate in the world fell by 5 points, to 81%, unheard of since 2008. Thus, 48 ​​million children did not receive any dose of any kind. A situation that is all the more worrying as this decline occurred at the end of a decade in which “the growth of childhood vaccination was stagnating”after the massive increase of the 1980s, underlines the UN agency.

“Vaccines have played a really important role in enabling children to live long, healthy lives. Any decline in vaccination rates is concerning.”

Brian Keeley, Report Editor

at AFP

Immunizing children thus saves 4.4 million lives each year, underlines UNICEF, a number which could climb to 5.8 million if the world managed to halve the number of children deprived of essential vaccines and to achieve 90% coverage for key life-saving vaccines.