India children's vaccination badly hit in pandemic: UN

THE United Nations (UN) has warned that India has seen the highest increase worldwide in the number of children who have not received the first dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP-1) combined vaccine in 2020. The global body has noted that globally, 23 million children have missed out on basic vaccines through routine immunisation services last year because of disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The number has been revealed by data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UN’s children’s agency (UNICEF) and it is the highest number recorded since 2009 and 3.7 million more than in 2019.

In 2019, 1.4 million children in India did not receive the DTP-1 vaccine and the number rose to three million in 2020, the UN said. “India is experiencing a particularly large drop, with DTP-3 coverage falling from 91 per cent to 85 per cent,” the agencies said.

The latest data on worldwide childhood immunisation figures, the first official ones to reflect the global service disruptions because of Covid, show a majority of countries last year saw a drop in childhood vaccination rates.

“Concerningly, most of these – up to 17 million children – likely did not receive a single vaccine during the year, widening already immense inequities in vaccine access,” it said, adding that most of these children live in communities that are affected by conflict, in remote areas that are under-served or in informal or slum settings where they face multiple disadvantages, including limited access to basic health.

We have gone back on other vaccinations: WHO chief
“Even as countries clamour to get their hands on COVID-19 vaccines, we have gone backwards on other vaccinations, leaving children at risk from devastating but preventable diseases like measles, polio or meningitis,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, has said.

“Multiple disease outbreaks would be catastrophic for communities and health systems already battling COVID-19, making it more urgent than ever to invest in childhood vaccination and ensure every child is reached,” he said.

Henrietta Fore, executive director, UNICEF, said the figures serve as a clear warning. “The COVID-19 pandemic and related disruptions cost us valuable ground we cannot afford to lose – and the consequences will be paid in the lives and well being of the most vulnerable,” she said.