WHO is sounding the alarm on childhood vaccination, which has been undermined due to the covid-19 pandemic. They fear the arrival of epidemics of serious diseases, such as measles or meningitis, if children are not protected.
Don’t move important appointments for your children. The covid-19 pandemic has caused a significant delay in the vaccination of toddlers. Thursday July 15, WHO (World Health Organization) sounded the alarm on a potential risk of “absolute catastrophe” if the delay is not made up, reports Progress with AFP.
“As countries cry out to get their hands on anti-Covid vaccines, we have backed down on other vaccinations, putting children at risk of catching serious, but preventable diseases like measles, polio or meningitis”, warned WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. According to the organization, this delay on vaccination added to a too rapid lifting of health restrictions against Covid is already having consequences in some countries. And especially in Pakistan, which has faced measles outbreaks.
Read also: Depressions, suicides… Pediatricians warn about the consequences of the crisis on children
23 million children affected
The figures unveiled by the WHO and Unicef are worrying: in 2020, 23 million children did not receive the three doses of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis or DTP3, which serves as a reference measure . That is, more than 3 million more children than in 2019, and the highest figure since 2009, underlines Le Progrès. For Henrietta Fore, the director of Unicef, these figures are“A clear alarm signal, the Covid-19 pandemic and the disruptions it has caused have caused us to lose precious ground that we cannot afford to give up and the consequences will be paid in death and loss of quality of the most vulnerable. ” The UN wants to prevent the distribution of anti-Covid vaccines from happening at the expense of childhood vaccination programs.
“In 2021, we have the potential for an absolute catastrophe to occur. We must act immediately ”, alerted Dr. Kate O’Brien, director of the immunization department at the World Health Organization in Geneva. Comments confirmed by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “Several epidemics would be a disaster for communities and health systems already battling Covid-19, making the need to invest in childhood immunization more urgent than ever. “