Covid-19 has created huge gaps in childhood vaccination

The Covid-19 virus is likely to have put global vaccination programs on the back burner. The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned, Thursday, that 23 million children missed the necessary vaccinations in 2020.

Covid-19 is also restoring the fight against polio

The World Health Organization said: “Current comprehensive data on immunization of children worldwide shows gaps in the implementation of programs that have closed with Covid-19. In the majority of states, there has been a decline in vaccination rates among children.” in Geneva. As many as 17 million children did not receive even a single vaccination last year. The most affected are children in conflict areas, slums and remote areas that are already difficult to access to the health and social system of the country concerned.

High possibility of danger

“While countries are calling for Covid-19 vaccines, we are at the same time falling behind on other vaccines. This increases the risk of children contracting serious and preventable diseases such as measles, polio and meningitis,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was quoted as saying. saying in a broadcast.

The head of the World Health Organization warned that this poses enormous risks: “Outbreaks of various diseases, especially from Covid-19, would do catastrophic damage to societies and health care systems that are already severely affected.” The number of children in India who did not receive the first dose of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccination rose from 1.4 million in 2019 to about three million in 2020. In Pakistan, it rose from 576,000 to 968,000, in Mexico, for example, from 348 000 to 454 000. In India, DTP vaccination coverage has fallen from 91 percent to 85 percent – a very small percentage to suppress these diseases and prevent outbreaks. In North and South America together, vaccination coverage (DTP) for children has decreased from 91 percent to 82 percent.

stagnation of vaccination coverage

Polio eradication has been a struggle for many years. But Covid-19 has made the situation worse, even though many states have started emergency programs. “Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccination rates for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (pertussis; note) measles and polio had stagnated for years at 86 percent. That rate is well below the World Health Organization’s recommended 95 percent rate for an outbreak Measles World Health Organization Books Another example: In countries where the HPV vaccination has been introduced to prevent cervical cancer in recent years, 1.6 million fewer girls received this important vaccination last year Vaccination coverage decreased from 15 in percent in 2019 to 13 percent last year.

The Covid 19 pandemic has also caused major problems in the vaccination sector in Austria. Just a few days ago, Styrian health authorities indicated that the number of diphtheria and tetanus boosters in the state’s six to 15-year-old cohort was only about 60 percent. Rates of about 90 percent are required. Especially with measles, there have been outbreaks repeatedly in Europe for years due to a lack of vaccination coverage.

(APA/Red, Photo: APA/APA/AFP/SIA KAMBOU)