2023-04-20 15:33:27
This is yet another backlash from the Covid crisis. Between 2019 and 2021, 67 million children worldwide were deprived of one or more vaccines, according to a UNICEF report published on April 20, the first that the NGO devotes to the “routine vaccination”.
Diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles: in France, 82,000 children have not had at least one of these vaccines over these three years. Among them, 21,000 haven’t even done any – children “zero doses”as UNICEF calls them. “The overall figure of 82,000 is a cumulative total value over the three years and assumes that there has been no catch-up”UNICEF tells us.
If the “pandemic-induced disruptions” and the conflicts that have hit the planet are largely responsible, the organization points to the impact of the loss of confidence in vaccination. “Perception regarding the importance of childhood vaccination has declined among people in 52 of the 55 countries studied”she warns.
The impact of misinformation
Africa and South Asia are the first to be affected, but the phenomenon has not spared Europe and in particular France, where confidence in childhood vaccination is said to have fallen by 11.5%. “In France, people under 35 and women were more likely to be less convinced of the importance of having children vaccinated after the start of the pandemic”, says UNICEF. The UN organization relied on data from the Vaccine Confidence Project of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, collected through representative national surveys conducted for more than ten years. years.
“At the height of the pandemic, scientists were able to rapidly develop vaccines that saved countless lives. Despite this historic success, yet fear and misinformation around vaccination in general have spread as widely as the virus itself.deplores in a press release Catherine Russell, director general of Unicef.
Will this loss of confidence last? This is what worries UNICEF, while globally, measles cases have more than doubled between 2021 and 2022, a direct consequence of under-vaccination. “Trust in routine immunization must not be a casualty of the pandemic as well, or large numbers of children will soon die of measles, diphtheria or other diseases. preventable”signale Catherine Russell.
Problem of access to care
“In France, the vaccination rate is fairly stable, but the challenge is to prevent this drop in confidence from having an effective impact on vaccination rates over the next few years”we explain to Unicef.
For the time being, injections in children from 0 to 2 years old continue to progress. “Since the implementation of the vaccination obligation in 2018, which only concerns this age group, we have had excellent vaccination coverage.underlines Dr. Fabienne Kochert, pediatrician in Orleans and former president of the French Association of Ambulatory Pediatrics (Afpa). Medicare data for the years 2019-2020 shows that Covid did lead to a drop in sales of infant vaccines, but this delay was quickly caught up. »
In her office, the specialist observes rather a climate of trust. “Vaccination refusals are extremely rare”, says the doctor. The majority of “zero dose” children often come from homes “the most vulnerable, outside the healthcare circuit and whose precariousness has often been exacerbated by the health crisis”.
The problem is therefore first of all that of access to care, according to her. “In general, these disadvantaged families are accompanied by the Maternal and Child Protection (PMI), but in certain territories such as Seine-Saint-Denis, it is complicated to meet all the monitoring needs”she explains.
For these under-vaccinated or unvaccinated minors, time is running out, UNICEF warns. “Children born just before or during the pandemic will soon be past the age at which vaccines are usually given”, reports the organization. It calls on governments to “identifying and reaching all children urgently” concerned.
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