The World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have called for urgent actions to protect most vulnerable children from deadly measles and polio epidemics as COVID-19 disrupts immunisations.
The UN agencies made the call in a statement posted on the WHO website.
According to the statement, the agencies have issued an urgent call to action as COVID-19 continues to disrupt immunisation services worldwide, leaving millions of vulnerable children at heightened risk of preventable childhood diseases.
“The two organisations estimate that 655 million dollars (400 million dollars for polio and 255 million dollars for measles) are needed to address dangerous immunity gaps in non-Gavi eligible countries and target age groups.’’
The statement quoted Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General as saying, “COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on health services and in particular immunisation services worldwide.
“But unlike with COVID, we have the tools and knowledge to stop diseases such as polio and measles.
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“What we need are the resources and commitments to put these tools and knowledge into action. If we do that, children’s lives will be saved.’’
Similarly, the statement quoted Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director as saying “we cannot allow the fight against one deadly disease to cause us to lose ground in the fight against other diseases.
“Addressing global COVID-19 pandemic is critical.
“However, other deadly diseases also threaten the lives of millions of children in some of the poorest areas of the world.
“That is why today we are urgently calling for global action from country leaders, donors and partners.
“We need additional financial resources to safely resume vaccination campaigns and prioritise immunisation systems that are critical to protect children and avert other epidemics besides COVID-19.”
In recent years, there has been a global resurgence of measles with ongoing outbreaks in all parts of the world. Vaccination coverage gaps have been further exacerbated in 2020 by COVID-19.
In 2019, measles climbed to the highest number of new infections in more than two decades.
Annual measles mortality data for 2019 to be released next week would show the continued negative toll that sustained outbreaks were having in many countries around the world.
At the same time, poliovirus transmission is expected to increase in Pakistan, Afghanistan and in many under-immunised areas of Africa.
Failure to eradicate polio now would lead to the global resurgence of the disease, resulting in as many as 200,000 new cases annually within 10 years.
New tools, including a next-generation novel oral polio vaccine and the forthcoming Measles Outbreak Strategic Response Plan, are expected to be deployed over the coming months to help tackle these growing threats in a more effective and sustainable manner, and ultimately save lives.
The Plan is a worldwide strategy to quickly and effectively prevent, detect and respond to measles outbreaks.