Latest news with #ImmunisationAgenda2030
AsiaOne
15-07-2025
- Health
- AsiaOne
Global childhood vaccination shows slight improvement but challenges remain, World News
A million more children completed the critical three-dose vaccination against diseases like diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to new data released by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Despite the progress, drastic changes in funding, growing global conflicts, and rising vaccine misinformation threaten to further stall or even reverse progress which poses a threat. "We've hit this very stubborn glass ceiling, and breaking through that glass to protect more children against vaccine-preventable diseases is becoming more difficult," WHO's director of the Department of Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals, Kate O'Brien, told reporters. In 2024, 89 per cent of infants globally, about 115 million, received at least one dose of the DTP vaccine, and roughly 109 million completed all three doses of the staple shot that protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, also known as whooping cough, according to the new national immunisation coverage data released on Tuesday by the WHO and Unicef. But, nearly 20 million infants missed at least one dose of DTP-containing vaccine, which includes 14.3 million "zero-dose" children who never received a single dose of any vaccine. This is 4 million more than the target for the year needed to stay on track with Immunisation Agenda 2030 goals, the report added. The world is currently off track for the goal, which has been to halve the number of zero-dose children and achieve at least 90 per cent global immunisation coverage. Data shows a quarter of the world's infants live in just 26 countries affected by fragility, conflict, or humanitarian crises, yet make up half of all unvaccinated children globally. In half of these countries the number of unvaccinated children has expanded rapidly from 3.6 million in 2019 to 5.4 million in 2024. "We're starting to see the emerging signs of slippage, and in other countries, stalling of vaccine coverage," said O'Brien. Despite the challenges, countries have been able to scale up vaccines for diseases such as HPV, meningitis, pneumococcal disease, polio, and rotavirus. In 2024, 31 per cent of eligible adolescent girls globally received at least one dose of the HPV vaccine. While this is far from the 90 per cent coverage target by 2030, it represents a substantial increase from the 17 per cent coverage in 2019. Global coverage against measles also improved, but the overall coverage rate is far below the 95 per cent needed in every community to prevent outbreaks. "The good news is that we have managed to reach more children with life-saving vaccines. But millions of children remain without protection against preventable diseases, and that should worry us all," said Unicef Executive Director Catherine Russell. [[nid:718919]]
Express Tribune
26-06-2025
- Health
- Express Tribune
Unvaccinated children in Pakistan rising
Pakistan has become the second largest country with the highest number of children with zero doses of vaccines in South Asia after India, a media report said, quoting a new study by British medical journal Lancet. The study found that Pakistan had 419,000 children falling into that zero-vaccine category. Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where polio still remains endemic, despite global efforts to eradicate the virus. The Lancet said in a press release that a major new analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study Vaccine Coverage Collaborators, said that despite progress of past 50 years, the last two decades have also been marked by stagnating childhood vaccination rates and wide variation in vaccine coverage. In 2019, it said, the WHO set ambitious goals for improving vaccine coverage globally through the Immunisation Agenda 2030. However, it added, the challenges exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, leaving millions of children vulnerable to preventable diseases and death. The authors of the study, "Global, regional, and national trends in routine childhood vaccination coverage from 1980 to 2023 with forecasts to 2030", said that the latest estimates should be taken as a "clear warning" that 2030 target would not be achieved without "transformational improvements". The IA2030 goals included halving the number of 'zero-dose' children — estimated as children aged under 1 who have not received any dose of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine. The programme also aimed to achieve global coverage of 90% for each of the life-course vaccines.
