UNICEF Maharashtra on Tuesday released the agency’s global flagship report ‘The State of the World’s Children 2023: For Every Child, Vaccination’, highlighting the significance of childhood immunisation.
Based on new data collected by The Vaccine Confidence Project (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) and published by Unicef, the report reveals that popular perception of the importance of vaccines for children held firm or improved only in India, China and Mexico, out of 55 countries studied.
67 million unvaccinated children from 2019-2021
The report warns that 67 million children missed out on vaccinations between 2019 and 2021, with vaccination coverage levels decreasing in 112 countries. In 2022, for example, the number of measles cases was more than double the total in the previous year. The number of children paralysed by polio was up 16% year-on-year in 2022. When comparing the 2019 to 2021 period with the previous three-year period, there was an eight-fold increase in the number of children paralysed by polio.
2 million infants vaccinated in Maha every year
Each year Maharashtra vaccinates nearly two million infants and 2.1 million pregnant women with routine immunisation vaccines, the report says. The full immunisation coverage of the state in the year 2022-23 is 100%, it says. Even during the pandemic, the state could reach full immunisation coverage up to 97%, the report says. During measles outbreaks in 2022-23, the state conducted special Measles Rubella Vaccination Campaigns to reach every single child with a missed dose of the MR vaccine, it adds.
“During Covid it was ensured that the health services to population are not hampered,” Nawin Sona IAS, Secretary, Department of Public Health, said. As per guidance from Government of India, routine immunisation services were continued uninterrupted in Covid containment zones, buffer zones and other areas. As a result, the state’s full immunisation coverage was 97% in 2020-21. Even during pulse polio campaigns, the coverage was more than 95%,” Sona said.
