Aid cuts, misinformation threaten child vaccination progress: UN

GENEVA

Global infant vaccination levels have stabilized after shrinking during the COVID crisis, the U.N. said on July 15, but it warned that misinformation and drastic aid cuts were deepening dangerous coverage gaps and putting millions at risk.

In 2024, 85 percent of infants globally, or 109 million, had received three doses of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP), with the third dose serving as a key marker for global immunization coverage, according to data published by the U.N. health and children's agencies.

That marked an increase of one percentage point and a million more children covered than a year earlier, in what the agencies described as "modest" gains.

At the same time, nearly 20 million infants missed at least one of their DTP doses last year, including 14.3 million so-called zero-dose" children who never received a single shot.

While a slight improvement over 2023, when the United Nations said there were 14.5 million zero-dose children, it was 1.4 million more than in 2019, before the COVID pandemic wreaked havoc on global vaccination programs.

"The good news is that we have managed to reach more children with life-saving vaccines," UNICEF chief Catherine Russell said in a joint statement.

"But millions of children remain without protection against preventable diseases," she said.

"That should worry us all."

The World Health Organization (WHO), meanwhile, warned that the planet was "off track" for reaching its goal of ensuring that 90 percent of the world's children and adolescents receive essential vaccines by 2030.

"Drastic cuts in aid, coupled with misinformation about the safety of vaccines, threaten to unwind decades of progress," warned WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

on July 15's report cautioned that vaccine access remains deeply unequal, with widespread conflicts eroding efforts to boost vaccine coverage.