WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Millions of children around the world are at risk of serious and deadly diseases because vaccination efforts have slowed down or gone backwards, according to a large study published in The Lancet.
This new study, led by researchers from the University of Washington, looked at data from 1980 to 2023, using more than 1,000 data sources from 204 countries.
Over the past 50 years, vaccines have saved the lives of about 154 million children by protecting them from deadly diseases. However, this progress has slowed or even reversed in many places since 2010.
For example, measles vaccine rates have dropped in 100 out of 204 countries, and vaccine coverage has gone down in 21 out of 36 wealthy countries like the US, UK, France, Italy, and Japan.
The Covid-19 pandemic made things worse by disrupting healthcare systems. As a result, millions of children are now more exposed to preventable diseases like measles, polio, and whooping cough.
While global vaccination efforts have made huge progress overall, cutting the number of completely unvaccinated children by 75 percent from 58.8 million in 1980 to 14.7 million in 2019, this success hides the recent decline.
The researchers say long-standing health gaps, the impact of the pandemic, and growing vaccine misinformation are the main reasons for this setback. Vaccine hesitancy, in particular, has become one of the biggest new challenges.
'These trends increase the risk of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles, polio and diphtheria, underscoring the critical need for targeted improvements to ensure that all children can benefit from lifesaving immunisations,' said senior study author Dr Jonathan Mosser.
Calling for more concerted efforts, lead author Dr Emily Haeuser said, 'Successful vaccination programmes are built on understanding and responding to people's beliefs, concerns and expectations.'
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