2023-04-24 15:05:49
24 avril 2023
According to Unicef, 67 million children worldwide were partially or totally deprived of vaccines in 2019 and 2021. First responsible? Covid-19 and a growing mistrust of vaccination. Let’s take stock on the occasion of European Vaccination Week from 24 to 30 April.
67 million children worldwide did not receive one or more vaccines between 2019 and 2021. 67 million is as many children who are no longer protected against often fatal, yet preventable diseases. This alarming finding is drawn up by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in a report published on 20 April.
“At the height of the pandemic, scientists were able to rapidly develop vaccines that saved countless lives. Despite this historic success, yet fear and misinformation around vaccination in general have spread as widely as the virus itself,” regrets Catherine Russell, director of Unicef.
In total, vaccination coverage rates are declining in 112 countries. Of these 67 million children, 48 million have not received any of the routine vaccines, they are called “zero dose” children. Their number stands at 21,000 in France.
Only 74.6% confidence rate in vaccines in France
Who is responsible for the decline in vaccination? Covid-19, a growing distrust of vaccines, and the increase in misleading information about them. Unicef thus points to the heavy demands that have weighed on health systems during the pandemic, the reallocation of resources in favor of vaccination against Covid-19, shortages of healthcare personnel and home confinement measures.
As for confidence in vaccines for children, it has declined worldwide, up to 44% in some countries. “Trust in routine immunization must not be a casualty of the pandemic, or large numbers of children will soon die of measles, diphtheria or other preventable diseases” , with en garde Catherine Russell.
Thus, the importance attached to childhood vaccination has decreased in 52 of the 55 countries studied by Unicef. It remained stable or increased in China, Mexico and India. In France, the loss of confidence in vaccination reached 11%. While on average, 80% of respondents in the 55 countries studied considered it important to have children vaccinated, this figure only reaches 74.6% in France.
Measles and polio on the rise
Unicef warns of the age of children, almost half of whom live on the African continent, who have not been vaccinated or only partially. They “will soon have passed the age at which vaccines are usually administered: it is therefore all the more urgent to make up for the accumulated delays in order to prevent epidemic outbreaks of fatal diseases”, states the report.
As a reminder, the vaccines are used to protect the people who receive the serums and to ensure herd immunity if the number of vaccinated people in the population is sufficient. This is what worries UNICEF when “measles cases worldwide have doubled compared to 2021, and the number of children paralyzed by polio has increased by 16% over the same period”.
Music and fashion from decades past are making a comeback.
Just like certain diseases such as poliomyelitis and measles.
It’s time to #RestoreImmunity. pic.twitter.com/WisGrCqN4i
— UNICEF (FR) (@UNICEF_FR) April 23, 2023
The Fund adds: « In the three-year period between 2019 and 2021, polio paralyzed eight times as many children as in the previous three years. This situation highlights the need to sustainably intensify efforts in favor of vaccination”.
Tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, whooping cough, measles… all these diseases are preventable thanks to vaccination. They have largely declined, or even virtually disappeared for some, thanks to vaccination campaigns. “This decline in confidence comes against the backdrop of the largest uninterrupted decline in childhood vaccinations in three decades,” UNICEF is alarmed.
To thwart the trend, UNICEF calls in particular to strengthen primary health care and better pay health workers.
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