Child vaccination rates are stagnating in many countries
Keystone-SDA
Progress in child immunisation has stalled at a global elvel. For decades, the number of children vaccinated against measles, polio and other diseases has risen. But since 2010, vaccination rates have stagnated in many countries, according to a study.
Millions of children are therefore exposed to fatal diseases, warn international experts in a study published in the specialist journal Lancet on Tuesday night.
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According to the study, Switzerland is doing relatively well. By 2023, 96.8% of children under the age of one had been vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough. This puts Switzerland in the top third of countries worldwide, and in the middle of Western Europe.
The scientists analysed data from 204 countries and regions on trends in routine childhood vaccinations. Overall, global vaccine protection improved significantly between 1980 and 2023: the rate of vaccination against diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, polio and tuberculosis doubled over this period.
At the same time, the number of ‘zero-dose’ children – those who have not received a single dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine – has fallen by around 75% worldwide.
Covid-19 has worsened the trend
Since 2010, however, progress has stagnated or even regressed in many countries. Measles vaccination coverage, for example, fell in 100 out of 204 countries between 2010 and 2019. In 21 of the 36 high-income countries, the vaccination coverage rate fell for at least one of the main childhood vaccines during this period.
The Covid-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the situation. The number of children without any vaccine dose reached 18.6 million during the pandemic, before falling back to 15.7 million in 2023. More than half of these unvaccinated children live in just eight countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Adapted from French by DeepL/ac
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