WHO says child vaccine services back on track
By Oliver Musembi, July 19, 2023Global child immunisation services which suffered a major setback as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic have resumed in earnest, three years later.
A World Health Organisation (WHO)/UNICEF report shows that the vaccination reached 4 million more children in 2022 compared to the previous year, as countries stepped up efforts to address the historic backsliding in immunisation caused by the pandemic. The survey covers data from 183 countries.
Data published on July 18, 2023 by WHO and UNICEF, in 2022, 20.5 million children missed out on one or more vaccines delivered through routine immunisation services, compared to 24.4 million children in 2021.
In spite of this improvement, the number remains higher than the 18.4 million children who missed out in 2019 before pandemic-related disruptions, underscoring the need for ongoing catch-up, recovery and system strengthening efforts.
New WHO and UNICEF data shows promising signs of immunisation services rebounding in some countries, but, particularly in low-income countries, coverage still falls short of pre-pandemic levels putting children at grave risk from disease outbreaks. Of the 73 countries that recorded substantial declines in coverage during the pandemic, 15 recovered to pre-pandemic levels, 24 are on route to recovery and, most worrying, 34 have stagnated or continued declining.
The report indicates that vaccination against measles – one of the most infectious pathogens – has not recovered as well as other vaccines, putting an additional 35.2 million children at risk of measles infection.
First dose measles coverage increased to 83 per cent in 2022 from 81 per cent in 2021 but remained lower than the 86 per cent achieved in 2019. As a result, last year, 21.9 million children missed the routine measles vaccination in their first year of life – 2.7 million more than in 2019 – while an additional 13.3 million did not receive their second dose, placing children in under-vaccinated communities at risk of outbreaks.
“Beneath the positive trend lies a grave warning. Until more countries mend the gaps in routine immunisation coverage, children everywhere will remain at risk of contracting and dying from diseases we can prevent. Viruses like measles do not recognise borders. Efforts must urgently be strengthened to catch up with children who missed their vaccination, while restoring and further improving immunisation services from pre-pandemic levels,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
For the first time, HPV vaccination coverage surpassed pre-pandemic levels. HPV vaccination programs that began pre-pandemic reached the same number of girls in 2022 than 2019.
However, coverage in 2019 was well below the 90 per cent target, and this has remained so in 2022, with mean coverages in HPV programs reaching 67 per cent in high income countries and 55 per cent in low- and middle-income countries.
“The newly launched HPV revitalisation, led by the Gavi Alliance, aims to strengthen existing program delivery and facilitate more introductions,” reads the report.
Many stakeholders are working to expedite recovery in all regions and across all vaccine platforms. Earlier in 2023, WHO and UNICEF, along with Gavi, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other IA2030 partners launched ‘The Big Catch-Up’, a global communications and advocacy push, calling on governments to catch up the children who missed vaccinations during the pandemic, restore immunisation services to pre-pandemic levels, and strengthen these going forward.
The vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) is used as the global marker for immunization coverage. Of the 20.5 million children who missed out on one or more doses of their DTP vaccines in 2022, 14.3 million did not receive a single dose, so-called zero-dose children. The figure represents an improvement from the 18.1 million zero-dose children in 2021 but remains higher than the 12.9 million children in 2019.
“These data are encouraging, and a tribute to those who have worked so hard to restore life-saving immunisation services after two years of sustained decline in immunisation coverage,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
He adds; “But global and regional averages don’t tell the whole story and mask severe and persistent inequities. When countries and regions lag, children pay the price.”
WHO and Unicef are working with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and other partners to deliver the global Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030), a strategy for all countries and relevant global partners to achieve set goals on preventing diseases through immunization and delivering vaccines to everyone, everywhere, at every age.