Yasmina Kattou (Photo credit: VOISIN / Phanie / Phanie via AFP) 06:49, April 24, 2023

Between 2019 and 2021, 67 million children were at least partially deprived of life-saving vaccines, often mandatory, putting a brake on "more than a decade of progress in terms of routine childhood immunization," the agency warns. And the France is not spared, as confidence in vaccination has fallen by 11% in three years.

On the occasion of World Immunization Week, which begins on Monday, UNICEF is concerned about the sharp decline in vaccination of children aged three and under. The global childhood immunization rate fell by five percentage points between 2019 and 2021, reaching 81%, a level not seen since 2008. In France, this concerns 82,000 children, deprived of at least one mandatory vaccine.

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Measles cases more than doubled in 2022

Worse, between 2019 and 2021, UNICEF estimates that 21,000 children have not received any dose. This is due, among other things, to mistrust of vaccination since the beginning of the pandemic, or to the lack of access to care in some rural areas. For Catherine Grosjean, head of France UNICEF, it is urgent to catch up.

"What we've seen in 2022, for example, is that the number of measles cases globally has more than doubled compared to 2021, so the effect has been very rapid from this drop in vaccination. These are diseases that sometimes have serious consequences, sequelae that remain for life. So this childhood vaccination is fundamental to avoid epidemics on a global scale," she said.

Every year, immunization saves more than four million children worldwide. Nearly three million more children could be protected by 2030. This would require halving the number of unvaccinated infants.