By Kazeem Akolawole
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has disclosed that over 12 missed vaccination in Africa between 2019 and 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic outbreaks
It said the pandemic outbreak made the continent vulnerable to even more outbreaks of disease and facing a “child survival crisis.”
The report titled: “The State of the World’s Children 2023,” also pointed out that amid a global “backslide” in childhood immunization over those three years, it is the worst regression for childhood vaccinations in 30 years, as Africa is the region with the highest number of unvaccinated and under-vaccinated children.
UNICEF reiterated that 12.7 million African children missed one or more vaccinations and 8.7 million didn’t receive a single dose of any vaccine from 2019-2021.
“The State of the World’s Children 2023,” confirms previous indications and lays out more data showing that the pandemic “interrupted childhood vaccination almost everywhere.”
Half of the 20 countries in the world with the largest number of children without any vaccinations referred to as “zero-dose” children are in Africa”.
Also in Nigeria, no fewer than 2.2 million children have never received a vaccination. While in Ethiopia, 1.1 million are unvaccinated against diseases.
The report comes as Africa and also other parts of the world, report disease outbreaks.
Likewise in the Southern African nation of Malawi, more than 1,000 people died in a cholera outbreak at the start of the year, the worst there in 20 years. Nearly 700 children died in a measles outbreak in Zimbabwe last year.
Most of the Zimbabwean children were unvaccinated against the disease, authorities said.
UNICEF maintained that the “intense demands on health systems, the diversions of immunization resources to COVID-19 vaccination, health worker shortages and stay-at-home measures” all contributed to missed vaccinations across the world, as well as well as conflicts, climate change and vaccine hesitancy.
“But in Africa, the pandemic exposed and exacerbated the “lack of resilience and persistent weaknesses in health systems and primary health care.”
“In 2022, 34 of the 54 countries in Africa experienced disease outbreaks such as measles, cholera and poliovirus, and there’s a “child survival crisis” on the continent”.
According to the UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Mohamed M. Fall, the resurgence of those diseases should serve as a clear warning for Africa.
“African leaders must act now and take strong political action to reduce the gap in vaccination and make sure that all children are immunized and protected”.
