1 Million Children Have Not Received Childhood Vaccine in Philippines: UNICEF

Manila: The Philippines has 1 million children who have not received a single dose of childhood vaccine, according to UNICEF.
 
In 2021, Philippines was the top 5 contributor to the 18 million zero-dose children globally and the top 7 contributor with the most children unprotected for measles. 
 
Routine immunization of children includes vaccines for life-threatening diseases such as polio, measles and tuberculosis.

Past governance challenges, persistent missed opportunities, low demand for services, and disruptions by the COVID-19 pandemic have increased the number of unimmunized children putting them at risk of severe diseases that can be entirely prevented with safe, effective, and free of cost vaccines.
 
"Falling child immunization rates and the increasing number of children at risk of measles, polio and other vaccine preventable diseases must be treated as a public health emergency that needs urgent action. Lessons learned from COVID-19 highlight the need to strengthen primary health care through integrated health and nutrition services for a strong and resilient health system in the long term," said UNICEF Philippines Representative Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov in a media release on Friday.
 
Zero dose children are those that have not received any routine vaccine. 
 
The Philippines has already been plagued with low coverage on protective vaccines before the COVID-19 pandemic, never having met the ideal target of 95 per cent routine coverage rate for children since the 1990s. 
 
Low coverage increases the risk of life-threatening diseases for children. 
 
Based on the 2022 WHO Risk Assessment, all regions in the Philippines are at high-risk for a measles outbreak.
 
UNICEF, with financial support of key partners such as Government of Australia, Asian Development Bank, Gavi, US Government, and the Government of Japan, invested more than USD$ 20 million (approx. 1.1 billion Philippine pesos) since 2021 to support the government’s immunization efforts, providing cold chain equipment, training, technical support for data and information, demand generation supervision and monitoring of the immunization services at the national and sub-national level.

 
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