Rising conflicts globally slowed childhood vaccination rate in 2023: UN

UNITED NATIONS: More children were left out of critical vaccination drives for diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough last year as a rise in conflicts across the globe hindered the supply of life-saving shots mostly in strife-torn regions, the United Nations said on Monday.

About 14.5 million children failed to get vaccinated in 2023, compared with 13.9 million a year earlier, according to UN estimates. The number, however, was lower than during the Covid-19 pandemic, when about 18 million children missed out on vaccination. The UN also said that an additional 6.5 million children failed to receive more than a single dose, meaning they were not fully protected.

The estimates are based on how many children received either the first dose or all three doses of the DTP vaccine, a staple shot that protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, also known as whooping cough.

In total, 84 percent of infants globally received their full course last year, below the necessary level to prevent disease outbreaks. War-hit countries in particular saw a big jump in the number of children who were not immunized in 2023, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said at a press conference last week, ahead of releasing the data. The biggest fall in vaccination coverage globally was in Sudan, which has been decimated by 15 months of civil war. It saw coverage rates fall to 57 percent in 2023 from 75 percent in 2022.