Almost 20 million children missed out on potentially life-saving vaccinations last year, the UN said Monday, as surging measles cases highlighted “dangerous” gaps in efforts to shield kids from preventable illness.
Last year, 19.4 million children were “not fully vaccinated”, the World Health Organization and the UNICEF children’s agency said in an annual report — up from 18.7 million in 2017 and about 18.5 million the year before.
This all pointed to a “dangerous stagnation of global vaccination rates, due to conflict, inequality and complacency,” the United Nations agencies said.
The comparative birth rate was not provided, but they warned the global quest for widespread vaccination against life-threatening disease has stagnated.
Some 350,000 measles cases were reported globally last year — more than double the 2017 number, a “real-time indicator” of the quest to expand vaccine coverage, UNICEF chief Henrietta Fore said in a statement.
In April, the WHO said 2019 was set to be worse, with preliminary data showing reported measles cases in the first quarter 300 times higher than the same period in 2018.
