Key points
- Vaccines have saved over 150m lives over past five decades: WHO chief
- Funding cuts have put these hard-won gains in jeopardy: Tedros
- Around 14.5m children missed all of their routine vaccine doses in 2023
ISLAMABAD: Outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, meningitis, and yellow fever are on the rise globally amid misinformation and cuts to international aid, the United Nations warned on Wednesday.
AFP cited WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as saying, “Vaccines have saved more than 150 million lives over the past five decades. Funding cuts to global health have put these hard-won gains in jeopardy.”
Tedros said that the increasing outbreaks worldwide are “putting lives at risk and exposing countries to increase costs in treating diseases.”
“Rising every year”
Measles, for example, is making an “especially dangerous comeback,” with cases rising every year since 2021 and reaching an estimated 10.3 million in 2023, which is a 20 percent increase since 2022, according to AFP.
In the past 12 months, 138 nations have reported measles cases, with 61 experiencing large or disruptive outbreaks — the highest number observed in any 12-month period since 2019, according to the statement.
According to AFP, the joint statement was signed by the World Health Organization, the United Nations children’s fund UNICEF, and Gavi, and was released Wednesday at the start of World Immunization Week, which runs April 24-30.
Meanwhile, funding cuts jeopardise progress and leave millions of children and adults at risk, the groups said, without explicitly mentioning a drastic reduction in US humanitarian aid under President Donald Trump, AFP reported.
Vulnerable children
“The global funding crisis is severely limiting our ability to vaccinate more than 15 million vulnerable children in fragile and conflict-affected countries against measles,” said UNICEF chief Catherine Russell.
Even as countries attempt to catch up on their immunization backlogs following the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of children missing routine vaccinations has continued to rise.
DW reported that there has also been a rise in children missing their routine vaccine doses, despite efforts being made to catch up after the pandemic. Around 14.5 million children missed all of their routine vaccine doses in 2023.
