16 lakh indian children missed vital vaccines in 2023.

National

The importance of vaccinations cannot be understated. Yet, compared to pre-pandemic levels of 2019, an additional 2.7 million children across the globe were either unvaccinated or under-vaccinated in 2023, according to a recent report by the World Health Organisation and UNICEF. Children who missed the first dose of diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTP) vaccine, usually administered at around two months, rose from 13.9 million in 2022 to 14.5 million in 2023. A whopping 11 per cent of these were from India, ranking second globally.


      DTP vaccine coverage saw a modest increase, yet gaps persist, impacting childhood immunity globally.

      Efforts to improve vaccine access need urgent reinforcement to prevent further setbacks in global immunization

     

 

     


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