The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund released alarming data on Monday, revealing that global childhood immunization rates have plateaued in 2023.
This stagnation has resulted in an additional 2.7 million children being left under-vaccinated compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
The comprehensive dataset, which tracks immunization trends for 14 diseases, highlights the urgent need for sustained efforts to catch up, recover, and strengthen immunization systems worldwide.
“The latest trends demonstrate that many countries continue to miss far too many children,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
“Closing the immunisation gap requires a global effort with governments, partners, and local leaders investing in primary healthcare and community workers to ensure every child gets vaccinated, and that overall healthcare is strengthened.”
The latest findings indicate that the global immunization rate for the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine has stagnated at 84% in 2023, with 108 million children receiving three doses.
Unfortunately, the number of unvaccinated children increased from 13.9 million in 2022 to 14.5 million in 2023, with over half of them residing in fragile and conflict-affected countries where access to healthcare services is limited.
Additionally, 6.5 million children failed to complete their third dose, leaving them vulnerable to preventable diseases. The data reveals that global immunization coverage has remained unchanged since 2022 and has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, due to ongoing challenges in healthcare services, logistical issues, vaccine hesitancy, and inequitable access to services.
Moreover, measles vaccination rates have stalled, leaving approximately 35 million children without or with partial protection. According to the World Health Organization, only 83% of children worldwide received their first dose of the measles vaccine in 2023, while the second dose coverage modestly increased to 74%.
“These figures fall short of the 95 per cent coverage needed to prevent outbreaks, avert unnecessary disease and deaths, and achieve measles elimination goals.
“Over the last five years, measles outbreaks hit 103 countries – home to roughly three-quarters of the world’s infants. Low vaccine coverage (80 per cent or less) was a major factor. In contrast, 91 countries with strong measles vaccine coverage did not experience outbreaks,” the global health body stated.
“Measles outbreaks are the canary in the coal mine, exposing and exploiting gaps in immunization and hitting the most vulnerable first,” stated the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus.
“This is a solvable problem. The measles vaccine is cheap and can be delivered even in the most difficult places. WHO is committed to working with all our partners to support countries to close these gaps and protect the most at-risk children as quickly as possible.”
The UN agencies pointed out that the new data also revealed some positive trends in immunization coverage, notably the gradual introduction of new and underutilized vaccines, such as those for human papillomavirus, meningitis, pneumococcal, polio, and rotavirus disease.
This expansion of protection is particularly notable in the 57 countries supported by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, where efforts are underway to broaden the scope of immunization coverage.
“For example, the share of adolescent girls globally who received at least 1 dose of the HPV vaccine, which protects against cervical cancer, increased from 20 per cent in 2022 to 27 per cent in 2023. This was largely driven by strong introductions in Gavi-supported countries, such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Nigeria. The use of the single-dose HPV vaccine schedule also helped boost vaccine coverage,” it added.
The CEO of Gavi, Dr Sania Nishtar, said, “The HPV vaccine is one of the most impactful vaccines in Gavi’s portfolio, and it is incredibly heartening that it is now reaching more girls than ever before.
“With vaccines now available to over 50% of eligible girls in African countries, we have much work to be done, but today we can see we have a clear pathway to eliminating this terrible disease.”
