The State Of The World’s Children 2023:
UNICEF released its global flagship report ‘The State of the World’s Children 2023: For Every Child, Vaccination,’ highlighting the significance of childhood immunization.
- Immunization, also known as vaccination, is the process of protecting an individual or a population from disease by introducing a substance that stimulates the body’s immune system to recognize and fight the disease-causing agent, such as a virus or bacteria.
Findings of the report are:
- The decline in vaccine confidence globally Over a third of the 55 countries studied for vaccine confidence showed a decline.
- The largest decline in childhood immunization in 30 years A total of 67 million children missed out on vaccinations between 2019 and 2021.
- In 2022, the number of measles cases was more than double the total in the previous year.
- Existing inequities in vaccination access Unvaccinated children often live in hard-to-reach communities such as rural areas or urban slums.
- There is a growing threat of vaccine hesitancy due to factors such as access to misleading information and declining trust in vaccine efficacy.
India-specific findings:
- Decrease in the number of zero-dose children during the pandemic Between 2020 and 2021, the number of zero-dose children in India decreased from 3 million to 2.7 million.
- However, India was among the top 20 countries with the largest numbers of zero-dose children
- Improvement in the ‘Importance Given to Vaccines’ 98% of the population in India currently perceive vaccines as important for children
