The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned Friday worldwide vaccination programs for diseases like Ebola, meningitis, measles and polio could be at risk because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and urged world governments to act. The coronavirus causes the COVID-19 disease.
As part of the WHO regular briefing in Geneva, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said COVID-related restrictions on trade, plus strains on health services in many nations, have disrupted regular vaccination programs around the world. She said these programs keep the world safe from outbreaks of diseases like cholera, yellow fever, meningitis and now Ebola.
She said those programs have protected more children and more countries against vaccine preventable diseases than at any point in history. But Fore said this pandemic is threatening to unravel this progress, risking the resurgence of other diseases we thought we had under control. “We cannot exchange one deadly outbreak for another. We cannot afford to lose decades of health gains that everyone has worked so hard to achieve.”
She said measles and polio vaccination programs have been hit the worst, with measles campaigns suspended in 27 countries and polio vaccinations put on hold in 38 nations. In all, she said, immunization programs in 68 countries have been disrupted, putting nearly 80 million children under the age of one at risk.
Fore said nations need to track their unvaccinated children and see that they can get the programs back on track. Meanwhile, WHO officials said they would issue advice next week to countries on how to continue providing vaccination services safely during COVID-19.