JAKARTA, KOMPAS.TV – Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, as many as 23 million children lost basic immunizations in 2020. In fact, as many as 17 million of them did not receive any basic immunizations for children.
WHO data in Indonesia the number of children who did not receive the first dose of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP-1) combination immunization has increased, from 472,000 children in 2019 to 797,000 children in 2020.
WHO data also shows that prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, global childhood immunization rates against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles and polio had been stalled for several years at around 86 percent.
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This figure is far below the 95 percent recommended by the WHO to protect against measles, a disease that often first appears and recurs when children are not immunized.
WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus explained that the number of children who had lost basic immunizations due to the Covid-19 pandemic had disrupted immunization services in hospitals and health facilities.
With so many resources and personnel being diverted to support the Covid-19 response, basic immunization in children has been disrupted in many parts of the world.
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