The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) makes an impassioned plea for parents and guardians to ensure their infants receive the scheduled routine childhood vaccines, to reduce threats of vaccine-preventable diseases, amid reductions in the procedure.
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The appeal comes from UNICEF’s Jamaica Health Specialist, Novia Condell, following the release of the UNICEF State of the World’s Children 2023 Report.
In the report, which was designed to examine what needs to be done to ensure that children everywhere are protected against vaccine-preventable diseases, Latin America and Caribbean saw the biggest decline in routine immunization of any region in the world, with a drop from 93 per cent to 75 per cent over the last 10 years.
Condell described the figures for Latin America and the Caribbean as, “terribly concerning” as many children across the region have never received any vaccination which puts public health, and the survival of the children, their families and their communities at risk.
The report also pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic set back childhood immunization around the world.
UNICEF estimated that 67 million children missed out entirely or partially on routine immunization between 2019 and 2021, while 48 million children missed out on them entirely.
