UNICEF reports decline in vaccine coverage prompts measles surge in Europe, Central Asia

Anjali Sharma

GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 15th Dec. UNICEF said on Thursday that measles, a vaccine-preventable disease which weakens children’s immune systems and can be fatal, is up by a demand of 3,200 per cent this year compared to last in Europe and Central Asia.

UNICEF warned that numbers are expected to rise due to gaps in immunity as vaccination rates have dropped as some 30,600 cases have been confirmed in the region in 2023.

UNICEF director for the region Regina De Dominicis said “There is no clearer sign of a breakdown in immunisation coverage than an increase in cases of measles”.

She called for urgent public health measures to protect children from the dangerous disease.

UNICEF said the highest rates of measles cases in Europe and Central Asia have been recorded in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Romania.

An estimated 931,000 children in the region missed out entirely or partially on routine immunisation from 2019 to 2021, it stated.

UNICEF highlighted that the rate of immunization with the first dose of the measles vaccine dropped from 96 per cent in 2019 to 93 per cent in 2022.

UN agency attributed the drop in coverage to shrinking demand for vaccines “in part fuelled by misinformation and mistrust” during the COVID-19 pandemic, disruption to health services and weak primary healthcare systems among other factors.