The covid-19 crisis and misinformation are behind the steepest continuous drop in childhood vaccination against other diseases in almost three decades, according to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef, published on Thursday.
The proportion of children receiving all three doses of the diphtheria, tetanus and polio (DTP) vaccine has fallen from 86% in 2019 to just 81% in 2021. This vaccine is used as a key indicator of coverage of immunization around the world.
The drop in 2020 and 2021 comes after a decade of improvements.
“This is a red alert for children’s health. We are witnessing the largest continuous drop in childhood immunization for a generation,” said Catherine Russell, executive director of Unicef, in a statement. “The consequences will be measured in number of lives.”
The reasons for this decline are multiple: conflicts, increased misinformation, and problems of supply or continuity of care related to the covid-19 pandemic.
A recovery from lockdowns was expected to begin in 2021, but instead vaccination rates have continued to fall in all regions of the world.
This low coverage has led to preventable outbreaks of measles and polio in the last 12 months, according to the report.
The news comes at a time when malnutrition rates are also on the rise. A malnourished child already has a weaker immune system and is therefore more likely to develop severe cases of these preventable diseases.
