Says a recent report released by WHO and UNICEF An estimated 19.9 million infants worldwide did not receive routine services such as three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) vaccine in 2017. Around 60% of these children live in 10 countries — Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa. This was revealed in a report released by the World Health Organization and UNICEF on immunisation estimates this week. It noted that global vaccination coverage — the proportion of the world’s children who receive recommended vaccines — has remained the same over the past few years. Since 2015, the percentage of children who received the three-dose DTP3 routine immunisation is sustained at 85% or 116.2 million infants, the report said. Besides this, an additional 4.6 million infants were vaccinated globally in 2017 compared to 2010 due to global population growth. The report stated that more efforts are needed to reach universal immunisation coverage. The figures released stated that an estimated 20 million additional children need to be vaccinated with DTP3, 45 million additional children need to be vaccinated with a second dose of measles vaccine and 76 million more children need to be vaccinated with three doses of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV). ‘Polio eradication’ “Of the 19.9 million infants who are not fully vaccinated with DTP3, almost eight million or 40% live in fragile or humanitarian settings, including countries affected by conflict. And about 5.6 million of them live in just three countries — Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan, where access to routine immunisation services is critical to achieving and sustaining polio eradication,” the report stated. Meanwhile, newly available vaccines are being added as part of the life-saving vaccination package. These include ones that offer protection against meningitis, malaria and even Ebola. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common viral infection of the reproductive tract and can cause cervical cancer, other types of cancer, and genital warts in both men and women. The HPV vaccine was introduced in 80 countries in 2017. “On the other hand, vaccines to prevent against major killers of children such as rotavirus, a disease that causes severe childhood diarrhoea, and pneumonia have been around for over a decade. But the use of rotavirus and PCV is lagging. In 2017, global coverage was only 28% for rotavirus and 44% for PCV. Vaccination against both these diseases has the potential to substantially reduce deaths of children under five years of age, a target of sustainable development goals,” the report added. IN A NUTSHELL Global measles mortality has declined by 84% More children are being immunised worldwide than ever before Uptake of new and underused vaccines is increasing. An additional 1.5 million deaths could be avoided, however, if global immunisation coverage improves.