Child Vaccination Rates Stagnate Globally in 2023: WHO and Unicef Report Bright Spots

by time news

2024-07-15 07:55:00

Globally, child vaccination rates will stagnate in 2023. This is still well below the level of 2019. This can be seen from the estimates of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef, the United Nations children’s fund. They see some bright spots. For example, the vaccination rate in the African region has increased slightly in 2023 compared to the previous year and the number of girls vaccinated against HPV is increasing.

Of all children worldwide, 84 percent (108 million children) received all three doses of the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) vaccine. That is an important indicator for global vaccination rates. That number is stagnant. The number of children who did not receive a single dose of the vaccine increased from 13.9 million in 2022 to 14.5 million in 2023.

Furthermore, the vaccination rate against measles appears to be stagnant. As a result, nearly 35 million children are partially or completely unprotected from the deadly disease. In 2023, only 83 percent of children worldwide received their first dose of the measles vaccine, and the number who received a second dose (74 percent) increased slightly from the previous year. However, to prevent an outbreak of the disease, a vaccination rate of 95 percent is required.

The figures show that global vaccination rates have not changed since 2022 and have not yet reached the levels of 2019, the period before the outbreak of the corona pandemic.

But the WHO and Unicef ​​also see signs of hope. For example, the number of childhood vaccinations in the African region has increased and by 2023 the number of children who were not vaccinated at all has decreased.

The number of vaccinations against the human papillomavirus (HPV) in girls appears to have increased significantly worldwide. For example, 27 percent of girls worldwide received the first dose of the vaccine, compared to 20 percent in 2022.

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