Vaccine uptake decline puts millions of children at risk

Globally, millions of kids are at heightened risk of deadly diseases due to stalled or reversed vaccination coverage majorly due to health inequalities, hesitancy and growing misinformation, a report published in The Lancet has warned.

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It flagged that global immunisation targets for 2030 as envisioned by the WHO in 2019 through the immunization Agenda will not be achieved without "transformational improvements in equity."

If major progress in rolling out jabs to billions of children in all corners of the globe over the last five decades has prevented the deaths of 154 million children, since 2010, progress has slowed and, in some areas of the world, reversed, said the report based on the voluminous data, collected from over 1,000 sources across 204 countries.

Measles vaccination rates have dropped in 100 countries, and 21 of 36 high-income nations, including the US, UK, France, and Japan, have seen declining coverage for essential vaccines such as those for diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, and polio, said the report published on Tuesday.