Help cuts, misinformation threaten the progress of child vaccination: UN

Global infant vaccination levels have stabilized after shrinking during the Covid crisis, the UN said on Tuesday, but warned that misinformation and drastic reinforcement cuts deepen dangerous gaps and pose.

In 2024, 85% of infants worldwide, or 109 million, had received three doses of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP), with the third dose serving as a key indicator to cover global immunization

This marked an increase in a percentage of a point and one million more children covered from a year earlier, to the organizations described as “moderate” profits.

At the same time, nearly 20 million infants lost at least one of the DTP doses last year, including 14.3 million non -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 children, was 1.4 million more than 2019-before Covid Pandemic caused destruction of world vaccination programs.

“The good news is that we have managed to get to more children with salvation vaccines,” UNICEF chief Catherine Russell said in a joint statement.

“But millions of children are left without protection from diseases that can be prevented,” he said.

While lack of access was the leading cause of low coverage worldwide, organizations also underlined the threat of misinformation.

The decline in confidence in “hard earned elements about vaccine safety” contributes to dangerous gaps and immunity outbreaks, who head of vaccine Kate O’Brien to journalists.

Experts have heard the alarm in the United States, especially, where Health Minister Robert F. Kennedy younger has long been accused of spreading the misinformation of the vaccine, including measles vaccine, even when the US is struggling with the worst measles epidemic in 30 years.

Last year, 60 countries faced large and annoying outbreaks of the extremely contagious disease, almost doubling from 33 in 2022, the report showed.

It is estimated that two million more children worldwide were vaccinated against measles in 2024 since the previous year, but the global coverage rate remained well below the 95% required to avoid spreading it.

In a positive note, Tuesday’s report showed that the vaccine’s coverage of a series of diseases had proceeded last year in 57 low -income countries backed by the Gavi vaccine alliance.

“In 2024, lower income countries protect more children than ever,” said Gavi chief Sania Nishtar.

However, the data also showed “sliding signs” that emerged in higher and high -income countries, where the coverage had at least 90%previously.

“Even the smaller drops in immunization coverage can have devastating consequences,” O’Brien said.