According to ‘The State of the World’s Children 2023: For Every Child, Vaccination’ report released by UNICEF today, out of 55 countries surveyed, only China, India and Mexico recorded an increase in the confidence for children’s vaccines.
The report highlighted that amidst large scale decline of confidence in childhood vaccines following COVID-19 pandemic, India gained its vaccine confidence while countries such as the Republic of Korea, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Senegal and Japan marked a decline after the start of the pandemic.
Globally, due to factors such as access to misleading information and declining trust in vaccine efficacy, there is a growing threat of vaccine hesitancy. However, according to UNICEF India Representative, Cynthia McCaffrey, India becoming one of the countries with the highest vaccine confidence in the world is a recognition of the Government’s political and social commitment.
She said that it demonstrates that the #largestvaccinesdrive during the pandemic has paid off in building confidence and strengthening systems for routine immunization to vaccinate every child.
McCaffrey further stressed on how “Immunization is one of humanity’s most remarkable success stories, allowing children to live healthy lives and contribute to society.”
The report also revealed that 67 million children missed out on vaccinations between 2019 and 2021 and that vaccination coverage levels decreased in 112 countries. It also recorded that the number of children paralysed by polio was up 16 per cent year-on-year in 2022 while the number of measles cases in 2022 was more than double the total in the previous year.
“When comparing the 2019 to 2021 period with the previous three-year period, there was an eight-fold increase in the number of children paralysed by polio, highlighting the need to ensure vaccination efforts are sustained,” the report added.
The State of the World’s Children is UNICEF’s flagship report. The 2023 edition is the first edition of the report solely dedicated to routine immunization. The report is based on new data collected by The Vaccine Confidence Project (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) and published by UNICEF.
