The World Health Organization expressed alarm Monday about how lockdown measures to stop spread of COVID-19 are also paralyzing vaccination drive worldwide. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus said at least 21 countries are reporting shortages and delays of vaccine supplies as a result of travel restrictions.
In his opening remarks on April 27, Ghebreysus said children are generally at low risk from contracting COVID-19 compared to adults. However, they are now vulnerable to other life-threatening diseases as their access to scheduled vaccines is limited due to the present situation.
Ghebreysus expressed his concerns as the world kicks off World Immunization Week. More than 116 million infants or 86% of children worldwide are vaccinated before COVID-19 ravages the world. Even with that rate, 13 million children remained to be unvaccinated. That number could jump significantly as polio, flu, and other routinary vaccines have been currently put on hold globally.
The director-general said when vaccination coverage goes down, more outbreaks as worst as the COVID-19 pandemic could occur. He said, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has reported that at least 21 low and middle-income countries are grappling for vaccine supplies as a result of border and travel disruptions. Since 2000, Gavi helped vaccinate 760 million children worldwide.
Gavi has a goal to vaccinate 300 more children by 2025. To date, however, 14 vaccination drives by Gavi have been postponed. The drives would have protected 13 million children from polio, measles, cholera, human papillomavirus, and 18 other diseases.
If this continues, "the tragic reality is that children will die as a result," Ghebreysus cautioned.
Of first concern is the malaria outbreak in Sub-Saharan Africa. A separate report from the World Economic Forum said disruption to malaria services is expected now that COVID-19 is creeping into the continent. Potentially, 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa may experience a jump in malaria deaths. In a worst-case scenario, deaths due to malaria could double.
At present, insecticide-treated net campaigns are suspended due to COVID-19. On top of that, access to malaria medicine facilities remains limited due to travel restrictions in place. When all these factors are brought in, deaths due to malaria could jump to 769,000, twice the number of deaths in 2018. That estimate is only in sub-Saharan Africa. To understand the picture fully, it should be noted that malaria killed 405,000 people around the world in 2018.
There are strong concerns among countries in Sub-Saharan Africa as it is where 94% of all malaria deaths occurred in 2018. Of that number, more than two-thirds are children under five years old.
