A report prepared jointly by the WHO (World Health Organization) and the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) warns of the low vaccination coverage related to measles in the last year.
The document reveals that, in 2021, about 40 million children missed at least one dose of the disease vaccine. Institutions point out that this decline makes millions of children susceptible to infection.
+ Record number of children have not been vaccinated against measles in the world, says study
The report also shows that last year there were about 9 million cases and 128,000 deaths from measles worldwide, and that twenty-two countries had “large and disturbing” outbreaks.
In addition to the low vaccination coverage, another factor that may have contributed to the high number of deaths related to the disease was the continuous interruptions and delays in immunization due to Covid-19 .
“The paradox of the pandemic is that while Covid-19 vaccines were developed in record time and deployed in the largest vaccination campaign in history, routine immunization programs have been seriously disrupted and millions of children have missed out on life-saving vaccines. against deadly diseases such as measles,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, in a statement.
Measles is one of the most contagious viruses, and it can spread rapidly to many regions within a country and across international borders. Coverage of 95% or more than 2 doses of disease vaccine is needed to build herd immunity to protect communities.
The WHO and CDC report points out that 81% of children received the first dose of measles vaccine, while only 71% had the second dose applied. These are the lowest global first-dose coverage rates since 2008.
“The record number of under-immunized and measles-susceptible children shows the profound damage immunization systems suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Rochelle P. Walensky, director of the CDC.
According to Walensky, health authorities can use recent measles outbreaks to identify communities that are at risk and, from there, provide “locally adapted solutions” to ensure availability of vaccines for all.
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