1.6 Million Children In India Unvaccinated In 2023, Says UNICEF (image/pixabay)
India has recorded the highest number of children at 1.6 million who have not received any vaccinations in 2023, second only to Nigeria’s 2.1 million “zero dose children,” as per the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) and UNICEF’s recent global immunisation report released on Monday.
The report states that India is among the world’s ten worst countries, including Nigeria, Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Indonesia, Angola, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Together, these countries make up 59 percent of the world’s “zero-dose children.”
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Despite India reducing its numbers to 1.1 million in 2022 from 2.7 million in 2021, the 1.6 million, or 16 lakh, “zero dose children” in 2023 is 45 percent higher than the previous year. Some children also “drop out” after their first shot and don’t receive a third protective dose of DTP, as the report highlighted.
India also ranked third highest number, after Nigeria (2.8 million) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (2 million), of measles, recording 1.6 million “zero dose children.” India is also among the top ten nations, accounting for 55 percent of children without measles vaccines across the world.
The report also flags India as one of the 52 countries that did not include the HPV vaccination in the immunisation package. Notably, cervical cancer is the second biggest cause of cancer among women, accounting for roughly 18 percent of cancer in women in the country.
In 2014, India launched Mission Indradhanush to provide vaccinations to unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children against vaccine-preventable diseases. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, regular health services have been significantly impacted.
The national programme in 2020 missed 2.5 to 3.4 children for DPT and measles vaccines, but the numbers improved slightly in the next two years, only to fall in 2023.
