20 million children worldwide missed out on life-saving vaccines in 2018: WHO

In 2018, immunization services such as DTP3 did not reach an estimated 19.4 million infants worldwide. Around 60 percent of these children live in 10 countries, including India and Pakistan

Recent data revealed by the World Health Organisation WHO and UNICEF have shown that the lives of 1.5 million children across the world could have been saved if more attention was paid to global immunization

Globally, the vaccination coverage with three doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3) and one dose of measles had stalled at 86 percent since 2010, the data suggested.

The data also points out that 20 million children worldwide missed out on life-saving vaccines against diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus and measles in 2018.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said even though vaccination is one of the most important tools for preventing outbreaks and keeping the world safe, far too many were left behind. He added that unfortunately, the poorest of the poor, the marginalized and those touched by conflict are the ones who were being consistently missed out.

The report comes in the wake of a severe measles outbreak in various African nations, particularly in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where over 2,500 cases have been reported.

In 2018, almost 350,000 measles cases were reported globally, more than doubling from 2017.

“Measles is a real-time indicator of where we have more work to fight preventable diseases said Henrietta Fore, unisef Executive Director.

“Because measles is so contagious, an outbreak points to communities that are missing out on vaccines due to access, costs or, in some places, complacency. We have to exhaust every effort to immunize every child,” Fore added.