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Unicef
A boy is immunized against measles in Samoa last year – many such programmes this year have been interfered with by the pandemic.
The pandemic has led to a sharp fall in the number of children worldwide being vaccinated, the UN states.
The decrease in immunisation versus diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough over the very first four months of the year is the first in almost three decades.
World Health Organization head Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus stated vaccines were an extremely powerful public health tool.
He said the suffering and death triggered by kids missing out on vaccines might overshadow that triggered by the infection.
Immunisation programmes in three-quarters of the more than 80 countries that responded to a UN study have been interfered with, Unicef and the WHO said.
They stated the disruptions were linked to a lack of individual protective devices for health employees, travel limitations, low health worker staffing levels and a reluctance to leave house, all of which saw programmes suppressed or shut down.
By May this year a minimum of 30 measles vaccinations projects had been cancelled or were at danger.
Measles outbreaks were currently rising before the pandemic struck, with 10 million individuals infected in 2018 and 140,000 deaths, most of whom were kids, according to UN data.
Unicef head Henriette Fore said the coronavirus had made regular vaccinations a “d