ABC News More than 14 million children around the world have not received a single dose of any vaccine, according to new data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.
This is 4 million more children than the 2024 target set by the WHO and 1.4 million more children than in 2019, which is the baseline year for measuring progress.
About 25% of the world’s infants live in 26 countries that are affected by conflict, fragility or humanitarian crises, but they make up half of all unvaccinated children, according to the global health agency. Children are unvaccinated or under-vaccinated for many reasons including lack of access, disrupted supply, conflict and instability, or misinformation about vaccines.
“Stalling of vaccine coverage, even the smallest drops in immunization coverage as measured at the country level, can have devastating consequences,” Dr. Kate O’Brien, director of the WHO’s Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, said during a press briefing on Monday. “It opens the door to deadly disease outbreaks and puts even more pressure on health systems that are already stretched. Immunization Agenda 2030 targets are in reach to protect more children [with] life-saving vaccines.”