GENEVA: Global infant vaccination levels have stabilised after shrinking during the Covid crisis, the UN said on Tuesday, but it warned that misinformation and drastic aid cuts were deepening dangerous coverage gaps and putting millions at risk.

In 2024, 85 per cent of infants globally, or 109 million, had received three doses of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP), with the third dose serving as a key marker for global immunisation coverage, according to data published by the UN health and children’s agencies.

That marked an increase of one percentage point and a million more children covered than a year earlier, in what the agencies described as “modest” gains. At the same time, nearly 20 million infants missed at least one of their DTP doses last year, including 14.3 million so-called zero-dose children who never received a single shot.

While a slight improvement over 2023, when the United Nations said there were 14.5 million zero-dose children, it was 1.4 million more than in 2019 — before the Covid pandemic wreaked havoc on global vaccination programmes.

“The good news is that we have managed to reach more children with life-saving vaccines,” Unicef chief Catherine Russell said in a joint statement.

“But millions of children remain without protection against preventable diseases,” she said. “That should worry us all.”

Deeply unequal

The World Health Organisation meanwhile warned that the planet was “off track” for reaching its goal of ensuring that 90 per cent of the world’s children and adolescents receive essential vaccines by 2030.

“Drastic cuts in aid, coupled with misinformation about the safety of vaccines, threaten to unwind decades of progress,” warned WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Tuesday’s report cautioned that vaccine access remains deeply unequal, with widespread conflicts eroding efforts to boost vaccine coverage. Dramatic cuts to international aid by the United States in particular, but also by other countries, could further worsen the situation.

“Our ability to respond to outbreaks in nearly 50 countries has been disrupted due to the funding cuts,” Unicef immunisation chief Ephrem Lemango told reporters.

While lack of access was the main cause of low coverage globally, the agencies also highlighted the threat of misinformation.

Dangerous immunity gaps

Dwindling trust in “hard-earned evidence around the safety of the vaccines” is contributing to dangerous immunity gaps and outbreaks, WHO vaccine chief Kate O’Brien told reporters. Experts have sounded the alarm in the United States especially, where Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has himself long been accused of spreading vaccine misinformation, including about the measles vaccine, even as the US grapples with its worst measles epidemic in 30 years.

Last year, 60 countries experienced large and disruptive outbreaks of the highly contagious disease, nearly doubling from 33 in 2022, the report showed.

An estimated two million more children worldwide were vaccinated against measles in 2024 than the year before, but the global coverage rate remained far below the 95 percent needed to avert its spread.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2025