COVID-19 pandemic fuels largest continued backslide in vaccinations in three decades. Illustrative photo
As a result, 25 million children missed out on one or more doses of DTP through routine immunization services in 2021 alone.
18 million of the 25 million children did not receive a single dose of DTP during the year, the vast majority of whom live in low- and middle-income countries, with India, Nigeria, Indonesia, Ethiopia and the Philippines recording the highest numbers.
Globally, over a quarter of the coverage of HPV vaccines that was achieved in 2019 has been lost. This has grave consequences for the health of women and girls, as global coverage of the first dose of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is only 15%, despite the first vaccines being licensed over 15 years ago.
Vaccine coverage dropped in every region, with the East Asia and Pacific region recording the steepest reversal in DTP3 coverage, falling nine percentage points in just two years.
“Planning and tackling COVID-19 should also go hand-in-hand with vaccinating for killer diseases like measles, pneumonia and diarrhea,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “It’s not a question of either/or, it’s possible to do both”.
In Viet Nam, more than 251,000 children missed out on one or more doses of DTP through routine immunization services in 2021 –an almost fourfold increase compared with 63,001 in 2019. At present, 52 out of 63 provinces in Viet Nam have failed to meet the required target of reaching 90 percent of children below one year old receiving all recommended routine vaccines.
To address backsliding on routine immunization, Viet Nam has been planning and implementing catch-up immunization in low coverage areas. For instance, the country has conducted supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) on MR and bOPV for children aged 1 to 5 years old. Thus, 144,448 children received one MR dose and 141,866 received additional doses of bOPV this year.
“The Government of Viet Nam is making efforts to get the routine immunization for children back on track. We look forward to seeing Viet Nam return to the strong child and adolescent immunization system it had built before the pandemic –the system that stood up strongly to safely and effectively deliver COVID-19 vaccines to the people”, said Rana Flowers, UNICEF Representative to Viet Nam. “Parents need to be assured that catching up the recommended vaccines for their youngest is essential – if preventable deaths are to be avoided” she added.
