Written By: Mishika Gupta | Published : July 16, 2025 10:27 AM IST
Global Vaccine Crisis: Over 14 Million Infants Missed Life-Saving Shots in 2024, Warn WHO & UNICEF
A warning alert from WHO and UNICEF has exposed that 14.3 million babies around the world have not received their routine vaccinations in 2024, which is said to be a huge setback in the progress of global health.
According to the data in 2024, about 115 million infants received at least one dose of the DPT vaccine, and 119 million completed all three series of doses. Still, nearly 20 million babies missed at least one dose of their vaccination. Surprisingly,14.3 million babies haven't received any vaccine at all, which is 4 million above the immunisation agenda 2030 target.
The rate of zero babies is not spread evenly across the world. According to the reports of WHO and UNICEF, nine countries - Nigeria, India, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Angola - combined reports more than half of the world's unvaccinated babies. Even after covering a 96 % vaccination rate, India is still left with 909,000 babies in 2024 who didn't even receive a single vaccine, highlighting the serious issue of reaching children even in countries with strong overall coverage.
WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the recent decline in vaccination is not something to be ignored. He warned, "Drastic cuts in aid, coupled with misinformation about the safety of vaccines, threaten to unwind decades of progress". The statement warns us about the growing concern that misinformation and declining support can ruin years of hard work in global health achievement.
Adding to the problem, there are other serious challenges as well that are leading to this condition - a lot of people hesitate to take vaccines, in places, connectivity is the problem, so the vaccines are not being supplied there, health systems don't have enough funding and conflicts make it even harder to reach children. In areas that are affected by any kind of crisis or conflict,where 25% of the world's babies live, the number of children who are not vaccinated is rising rapidly from 3.6 million in 2019 to 5.4 million in 2024.
Children who don't get proper vaccination are prone to a lot of diseases like measles, polio and stubborn cough. For example, measles requires at least 95 % of coverage before any kind of outbreak, but if you miss the dose by even less than this, then you may face a massive outbreak. Currently, over 30 million children worldwide are not fully protected from measles, putting them towards risk. These gaps are allowing the disease that has disappeared to re-emerge.
Follow TheHealthSite.com for all the latest health news and developments from around the world.
