GENEVA, iNews.id – World Health Organization (WHO) warns the global community of reducing coverage immunization for diseases such as measles, tetanus, and diphtheria during a pandemic Covid-19. According to the UN agency, such conditions could endanger millions of children.
“The suffering and avoidable deaths caused by children who lose routine immunization can be far greater than Covid-19 itself,” said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a joint report with UNICEF on Wednesday (7/15) / 2020).
Reuters launch, about 75 percent of the 82 countries that responded to the survey for the report claimed to face related disorders corona virus on their immunization program in May 2020.
Most of these problems are related to the lack of adequate self-protection equipment (PPE) for health workers; travel restrictions during a pandemic, as well as; lack of health workers. All of that is claimed to cause immunization services to be prevented or closed.
At least 30 measles vaccination campaigns have been or are at risk of being canceled, threatening new outbreaks of infectious viral diseases this year and beyond, the report said.
Previously, outbreaks of measles have also been seen to increase. The outbreak infected nearly 10 million people in 2018 and killed 140,000 of them, most of them children, according to WHO data.
For diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough, preliminary data for the first four months of 2020 show a fairly significant reduction in the number of children who get all three doses of DTP vaccine that protect them, the report said.
This is the first time in 28 years the world has seen a decrease in coverage for routine childhood immunization. 2019 data shows that nearly 14 million children worldwide lose their life-saving vaccines. Most of these children live in Africa and are less likely to have access to other health services.
A joint report by WHO and UNICEF also revealed that the immunization program had stagnated or congested before the new corona virus emerged and spread throughout the world. However, the Covid-19 pandemic is now exacerbating the situation.
Editor: Ahmad Islamy Jamil
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