Vaccination: 25m Children Under Threat – UNICEF

United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), has warned that 25 million children are under threat of different transmittable diseases due to lack of vaccination.
Executive Director of UNICEF, Catherine Rusell, gave the indication in a paper she delivered early this week at an event to mark ending the Covid-19 pandemic equitable access to vaccines.
She observed that upto 21 million children did not receive the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis —/ a marker for immunization coverage in general.
“This is the largest, sustained drop in the rates of routine childhood vaccinations in a generation — potentially wiping out 30 years of progress if we don’t get back on track”, she declared.
Data so far released indicate that of late August, 12.4 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered globally.
As the world’s largest single buyer of vaccines and humanitarian supplies in the world, said stated that UNICEF supply division has been instrumental in this effort – with a focus on reaching underserved communities and strengthening health systems.
“With our COVAX partners, we implemented the largest ultra-cold chain scale-up in history — financing and delivering 800 ultra-cold chain freezers to nearly 70 countries in 2021 alone Rusell stated.
She revealed that,” last month, UNICEF shipped more than 20,000 units of the COVID-19 antiviral drug, molnupiravir to Cambodia, which was the first shipment of a novel antiviral by ACT-A partners.
“All these joint efforts to ensure an equitable response to the pandemic are beginning to pay off.
According to her 10 member states have achieved 100 per cent vaccination of health care workers – and coverage for other high-priority groups, including people over 60 and pregnant women, has increased.
While noting that gradually progress is being made to keep up the momentum to protect the world against future surges and new variants,as long coverage continues to be inequitable with communities liable to unprotected and underserved exposure which poses threat to children.
Rusell reasoned that though children may not be the face of the pandemic, but they are certainly among its biggest victims, since the secondary impacts of the pandemic on children’s health, education, and well-being have been devastating.