Children under threat

The duty of the family to the child; and the state to its newest members is considered sacred. But this sacred duty has been constantly neglected throughout the globe. How else can the failure to vaccinate one in 10 children for deadly diseases be understood? With the world no longer living in the dark ages, many a fatal illness can now be eradicated through proper vaccination practices. However, the abysmal failure to fulfill our duties to children has continued. Almost 13 million infants did not receive any vaccinations in 2016. Another 6.6 million infants did not complete their three dose DTP immunisation course. No country seems to have done better or worse in the statistics. Around 7.3 million of these children live in fragile situations; and 4 million of these children live in three countries – Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. The dangers posed by new diseases are being compounded by the failure to eliminate diseases we have already learned to control.

The reasons underpinning low vaccine coverage are different. The fate of children who are born in the conflict zones across the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa as well as those in war-torn parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan is sealed by geography. In places like the US, parents choosing not to vaccinate their children on the basis of conspiracy theories seal their fate. The WHO estimates that immunisation prevents between 2 and 3 million deaths per year. A concentrated campaign to target the most vulnerable children who are not provided vaccines would save so many more lives. The WHO has insisted that it is the ‘unreachable’ who must be reached through the expansion of healthcare facilities and immunisation campaigns. This is a difficult task. Brave health providers continue to operate in conflict zones, but there are never enough. Communities remain unreachable even by benevolent state apparatuses. Others are deliberately ignored. The lowest coverage remains in major conflict zones in Africa. The progress in vaccinations does not match the progress in the medical field. One of the major needs identified is pertaining to donor funding. While big programmes like polio eradication have bulk funding from external sources, some of the lesser known vaccines continue to get low support. Internally, countries are unwilling to spend big on vaccines when there has been no big outbreak of a certain disease in their populations. The lethargic response unpins why our children are at risk of more disease than ever since medical progress dealt small pox a death blow.