GENEVA: As per data published on Thursday by World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF, it comes to know that more than three million children in India missed a first dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis combined vaccine (DTP-1) in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The figure is the highest in the world with DTP-3 coverage falling from 91 percent to 85 percent. In 2019, about 1.4 million children had missed their first dose. While disruptions in immunization services were widespread in 2020, the middle-income countries in the WHO Southeast Asian and Eastern Mediterranean Regions were the most affected. Compared with 2019, 3.5 million more children missed their first dose of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine (DTP-1) while three million more children missed their first measles dose.
The study, based on data from 160 countries, suggests that Covid-19 may likely lead to the resurgence of measles, polio and other killers as the pandemic unravels years of progress in routine immunization and exposing millions of children to deadly, preventable diseases.
"This evidence should be a clear warning - the Covid-19 pandemic and related disruptions cost us valuable ground we cannot afford to lose - and the consequences will be paid in the lives and wellbeing of the most vulnerable," said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director, in a statement.
"Even before the pandemic, there were worrying signs that we were beginning to lose ground in the fight to immunize children against preventable child illness, including with the widespread measles outbreaks two years ago. The pandemic has made a bad situation worse. With the equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines at the forefront of everyone's minds, we must remember that vaccine distribution has always been inequitable, but it does not have to be," Fore added.
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