COVID-19 disrupts vaccination efforts, putting 80 million kids at risk
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At least 80 million children aged younger than 1 year could miss routine vaccinations because of the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO and other groups warned today.
Data collected by WHO, UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance indicate that routine vaccinations are stalled in at least 68 countries because of the pandemic, according to a news release.
The groups announced they will meet June 4 for the Global Vaccine Summit, with a goal to raise at least $7.4 billion for Gavi to be used to protect 300 million children in these 68 lower income countries through 2025. According to the release, the funding also will support mass vaccination campaigns and the rebuilding of health systems to help address damage done by the pandemic.
“Immunization is one of the most powerful and fundamental disease prevention tools in the history of public health,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, said in the release. “Disruption to immunization programs from the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to unwind decades of progress against vaccine-preventable diseases like measles.”
According to the release, as of March, routine childhood immunization services decreased in 53% of the 129 countries for which data were available.
Recently, the Global polio Eradication Initiative recommended that polio vaccination campaigns be postponed until the second half of the year and that countries responding to outbreaks of vaccine-derived polio suspend those efforts until June. In the United States, data showed a sharp decrease in DTaP, MMR and HPV vaccinations from February to April.
The release notes several reasons for disrupted vaccine services globally, including a reluctance to leave the house, lack of information or fear of spreading the novel coronavirus, and the unavailability of health care workers because of travel restrictions, deployment to COVID-19 responses or a lack of personal protective equipment.
According to the release, dozens of countries have postponed vaccination campaigns against polio, meningitis, yellow fever, typhoid, cholera, tetanus and measles, mumps and rubella.
“We cannot let our fight against one disease come at the expense of long-term progress in our fight against other diseases,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore, MSc, said in the release. “We have effective vaccines against measles, polio and cholera. While circumstances may require us to temporarily pause some immunization efforts, these immunizations must restart as soon as possible, or we risk exchanging one deadly outbreak for another.”
Perspective
Back to TopPaul A. Offit, MD
It is not surprising that because parents are afraid to bring their children to the doctor’s office that we are going to enter this coming winter with an undervaccinated childhood population.
These diseases are often more common and more devastating. This will make it all the worse. There is one counterbalancing force, which is that if we continue to maintain social distancing, sheltering in place and locking down, it will decrease the spread of these viruses and bacteria.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out with measles. Measles is highly contagious. But if we are still largely sheltering in place and quarantining, come [the end of the year], that will work against the spread of measles.
On the other hand, we have an undervaccinated population, which obviously works on behalf of the spread of measles.
Perspective
Back to TopYvonne Maldonado, MD
I think it is critical for us to remember that during this time of uncertainty and concern, that while we need to follow orders and guidelines to shelter and to physically distance and be careful about exposure, that we need to make sure that overall that we maintain our health care in other ways. That includes, especially in children, the maintenance of their well child care and well-child visits, and especially for those children aged 2 years. We need to make sure that they have their vaccinations.
I know it is difficult to remember that when there has been so much emphasis on COVID-19, but this routine care is going to be something that stays with us, even after this pandemic, and we want to make sure that our children are well protected.
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