Missed childhood vaccinations trigger worry
Hindustan TimesChildren missing out on life-saving vaccines could lead to a resurgence of potentially fatal diseases, such as childhood pneumonias, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and diarrhoea, among others, which threaten to reverse the gains India has made by immunising children against vaccine-preventing illnesses to bring down its infant mortality rate from 33 per 1,000 live births in 2017 from 34 the year before. Many states in India have halted immunisation activities because of the national lockdown and community health workers are being asked to help with Covid-19 surveillance and contact tracing, which leaves them with no time to visit homes to immunise a children in rural areas. If immunisation services stop, India risks losing gains it has made in lowering child mortality,” said the official with the Union health ministry, requesting anonymity. In 2018, the last year for which global data is available, 86% of children under the age of five globally were vaccinated with three doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis and one dose of the measles vaccine, up from 72% in 2000 and 20% in 1980, but an estimated 13 million children never receive any vaccines, putting them at risk of disease and death, according to the WHO.