CHILDHOOD IMMUNISATION

Context: Over 4 million more children were vaccinated in 2022 compared to the year before, the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said.

Key Points

• The three-dose vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough), also known as the DTP3, is used as the global marker for immunisation coverage. ? Over 20.5 million children missed out on one or more vaccines delivered through routine immunisation services in 2022, compared to 24.4 million children in 2021.
• Large lower-middle income countries such as India and Indonesia have shown strong recoveries as they stepped up efforts to address the historic backsliding in immunisation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Vaccination against one of the most contagious pathogens, measles, has not recovered as well as other vaccines.
• This has increased the risk of measles infection for an additional 35,2 million child.
• Only rates of the cervical cancer-preventative human papillomavirus or HPV vaccination have returned to pre-pandemic levels