Millions of children are missing out on their vaccinations

MILLIONS of children around the world may be at risk because of stalling vaccination efforts in recent years, according to an analysis of a half-century of global vaccination efforts.

- 

The study, published this week in the Lancet medical journal, said that the World Health Organiwation's (WHO) global vaccination programme “has achieved remarkable success” since it was created in 1974, reaching more than four billion children and saving 154 million lives.

But progress has stalled in recent decades, the authors said, with inequalities in access and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as an upsurge in vaccine hesitancy and misinformation, continuing to hinder progress.

The study said that while global coverage for key vaccines, including those against measles, polio and tuberculosis, almost doubled between 1980 and 2023, progress slowed in many countries and territories between 2010 and 2019, and has even reversed in some cases in recent years.

The trend was also seen in wealthier parts of the world, with declines in at least one key vaccine in 21 of 36 high-income countries and territories.

The coronavirus pandemic “exacerbated these challenges, with global rates for these vaccines declining sharply since 2020, and still not returning to pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels as of 2023,” the study said, causing tens millions of children to miss doses of routine vaccines and “increasing their risk for preventable disease and death”.

“Despite the monumental efforts of the past 50 years, progress has been far from universal. Large numbers of children remain underand un-vaccinated,” senior study author Jonathan Mosser of University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said in a news release.