Global infant vaccination levels have stabilized after shrinkage during the covide crisis, the UN said on Tuesday, but it warned that wrong information and drastic aid cuts were elaborated on dangerous coverage holes and putting millions at risk.
By 2024, 85% of infants had received three doses of the vaccine against diphtheria, Tetanus and Kikhoste (DTP) with the third dose, which serves as a key marker for global immunization coverage, according to data published by the UN Health and Children’s Agency.
It marked an increase of one percentage point and a million more children covered than a year earlier, in what the agencies described as “modest” winnings.
At the same time, nearly 20 million infants missed at least one of their DTP doses last year, including 14.3 million so-called zero-dose “children who never received a single shot.
While a slight improvement over 2023, when the United Nations said there were 14.5 million zero-dose of children, it was 1.4 million more than in 2019-to covid pandemic destroyed destruction on global vaccination programs.
“The good news is that we have managed to reach more children with life-saving vaccines,” Unicef chief Catherine Russell said in a joint statement.
“But millions of children remain without protection against preventable illnesses,” she said.
While lack of access was the main cause of low coverage globally, the agencies also highlighted the threat of incorrect information.
Vulnerable confidence in “hard -earned evidence about the safety of the vaccines” contributes to dangerous immunity holes and outbreaks, as vaccine manager Kate O’Brien told journalists.
Experts have sounded the alarm in the United States, especially where health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Even for a long time has been accused of spreading vaccine -hired information, including about the measles vaccine, even when the United States struggles with its worst measles epidemic in 30 years.
Last year, 60 countries experienced large and disturbing outbreaks of the very contagious disease, almost doubled from 33 in 2022, the report showed.
Estimated two million more children around the world were vaccinated against measles by 2024 than the previous year, but the global coverage of coverage remained well below the 95%needed to avert their spread.
On a positive note, Tuesday’s report showed that vaccine coverage against a number of diseases had come up last year in the 57 low -income countries supported by the Vaccine Alliance Gavi.
“In 2024, lower-income countries protected more children than ever before,” said Gavi Chief Sania Nishtar.
But the data also indicated “signs of sliding” that occurred in upper medium and high income countries, where coverage had previously been at least 90%.
“Even the smallest drops in immunization coverage can have devastating consequences,” said O’Brien.
