Global Vaccination Drive Hits A Wall
Global efforts to vaccinate children have stalled since 2010, leaving millions exposed to dangerous but preventable diseases such as polio, measles, and tuberculosis. A recent analysis published in The Lancet highlights a significant decline in immunization rates, particularly for measles, which dropped in 100 countries between 2010 and 2019. This reversal threatens decades of public health progress, even in high-income nations that had previously eradicated the disease.
Experts point to a growing trend of vaccine hesitancy among parents, fueled by misinformation and distrust. In countries like the U.K., this has resulted in the worst measles outbreaks since the 1990s and several infant deaths from whooping cough. The U.S. is also seeing a decline in vaccination coverage, with exemption rates reaching record highs. Despite widespread awareness of the life-saving impact of vaccines, public health officials are increasingly concerned about the consequences of these downward trends.
The World Health Organization’s global immunization initiative, launched in 1974, has historically led to significant improvements in child health. Coverage for key vaccines like diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and measles had nearly doubled over the decades. However, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted routine vaccinations, resulting in tens of millions of children missing critical immunizations. Sub-Saharan Africa has been disproportionately affected, with millions of children going without vaccines for diseases like polio and TB.
To address this crisis, the British government has pledged £1.25 billion (approximately $1.7 billion) to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, for 2026–2030. The funding aims to immunize 500 million children in the world’s poorest nations and potentially save 8 million lives. While this is a welcome step, it falls short of the previous commitment made between 2020 and 2025.
The analysis from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation found that over half of the world’s 15.7 million unvaccinated children in 2023 lived in just eight countries, including Nigeria, India, and Brazil. With measles cases rising sharply in the Americas and other regions, public health leaders stress that global cooperation is essential. As one pediatric expert put it, the resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases anywhere poses a risk to everyone.
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