WITH over 25 million children missing at least one essential vaccine in 2021 worldwide, the World Health Organisation has disclosed that a total of 18 million children in the world received no vaccines at all while Africa needs to vaccinate about 33 million children between 2023 and 2025 to put the continent back on track to achieve the 2030 global immunisation target to reduce morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases.
Meanwhile, global partners have announced a new effort – “The Big Catch-up” – to vaccinate millions of children and restore immunisation progress lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The World Health Organisation, WHO, says the pandemic saw essential immunisation levels decrease in over 100 countries, leading to rising outbreaks of measles, diphtheria, polio and yellow fever among others.
In statement to mark this year’s World Immunisation Week, WHO, decried the declines in immunisation coverage driven by the COVID-19, stated that the pandemic have shoot up the number of zero-dose and under-immunised children in Africa, rising by 16 per cent between 2019 and 2021 and pushing the cumulative total (2019-2021) to around 33 million, representing nearly half the global figure.
“As countries strive to emerge from the long shadow of COVID-19, we cannot afford to lose further ground. Every effort must be made to ensure every child has access to essential vaccines.”
WHO stated that vaccination coverage in the region will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2027, unless there is renewed political will and intensified efforts by governments.
“This year, African Vaccination Week and World Immunization Week, from 24–30 April, is being marked under the theme ‘The Big Catch-Up.’ This is a global push by WHO and partners to intensify efforts to reach children, who missed vaccinations, as well as to restore and strengthen routine immunisation programmes.
“To urgently scale up coverage and protect children, WHO and partners are supporting 10 priority African countries – which are among the top 20 countries globally with the highest numbers of zero-dose children – to carry out catch-up routine vaccination campaigns.
The WHO Director, Department of Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals, Dr Kate O;Brain stressed further that action to catch-up is needed everywhere, and especially in the 20 low- and middle-income countries where over three-quarters of children who missed vaccinations live.
Also, WHO in another press statement, explained that ‘The Big Catch-up’ is an extended effort to lift vaccination levels among children to at least pre-pandemic levels and endeavours to exceed those.
Led by a broad range of national and global health partners, The Big Catch-up also aims to ensure stronger primary health care services for essential immunization in the future.
The WHO, UNICEF, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with Immunisation Agenda 2030 and many other global and national health partners, are joining forces to call for “The Big Catch-up”, a targeted global effort to boost vaccination among children following declines driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.
They claimed that the effort aims to reverse the declines in childhood vaccination recorded in over 100 countries since the pandemic, due to overburdened health services, closed clinics, and disrupted imports and exports of vials, syringes and other medical supplies.
Meanwhile, communities and families experienced lockdowns, restricting travel and access to services, and financial and human resources were limited along with access to health commodities, due to the emergency response.
Ongoing challenges like conflicts, climate crises and vaccine hesitancy also contributed to the decline in coverage rates.
The Big Catch-up aims to protect populations from vaccine-preventable outbreaks, save children’s lives and strengthen national health systems.
While calling on people and governments in every country to play their part in helping to catch up by reaching the children who missed out, The Big Catch-up will have a particular focus on the 20 countries where three quarters of the children who missed vaccinations in 2021 live.
Although global coverage levels have declined, there have also been bright spots of resilience. For example, early reports indicate India saw a strong recovery in essential immunisation in 2022, while Uganda maintained high coverage levels during the pandemic.
To ensure progress on childhood immunisation, partners are working with countries to strengthen health care workforces, improve health service delivery, build trust and demand for vaccines within communities, and address gaps and obstacles to restoring immunisation.
In addition to catching-up on childhood immunisation, intensified efforts are needed to introduce the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to adolescents to prevent cervical cancer, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where the burden is highest.
The WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “Millions of children and adolescents, particularly in lower-income countries, have missed out on life-saving vaccinations, while outbreaks of these deadly diseases have risen.No child should die of a vaccine-preventable disease.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said: “Routine vaccines are typically a child’s first entry into their health system and so children who miss out on their early vaccines are at added risk of being cut out of health care in the long run.
“The longer we wait to reach and vaccinate these children, the more vulnerable they become and the greater the risk of more deadly disease outbreaks. Countries, global partners and local communities must come together to strengthen services, build trust and save lives,” she said.
“We cannot allow a legacy of the pandemic to be the undoing of many years’ work protecting more and more children from deadly, preventable diseases,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
“Global health partners, working with governments and communities, must do everything we can to protect the life of every child.”
President of Global Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Chris Elias,said, “Vaccines are a public health triumph. The incredible progress that has been made toward ending polio and reducing the incidence of infectious diseases is the direct result of thousands of dedicated global partners and local health workers who have worked to immunize millions of children. We must double down to reach all children with the vaccines they need to live healthier lives and ensure that future generations live free of preventable diseases like polio.”
