The virus that causes Covid-19 does not directly affect children, but their long-term health is undoubtedly being affected by our collective new reality. Parents are now afraid to take care of some of their children’s basic health needs.
Families are now making a new calculation: to some, the risk of exposure to Covid-19 seems greater than the benefit of vaccinating on time or that of promptly seeking medical attention for minor illnesses and injuries.
Requirement for people to stay home and observe social distancing is leading parents to “make the difficult decision to defer routine immunization”.
Measles immunization campaigns in 24 countries have already been postponed, and more are expected to be delayed, according to the Measles & Rubella Initiative, a health partnership that includes the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and United Nations Foundation.
In March, the WHO released new guidelines in the face of the COVID-19, recommending that governments temporarily pause preventative vaccine campaigns, such as measles immunizations, as long as there’s no active measles outbreak in that area.
More than 140,000 people around the world died of the measles in 2018, most of them children under the age of 5, according to WHO.
United Nations (UN) officials have warned that upward of 100 million children could miss scheduled measles vaccines as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The organization’s children’s fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO) have joined forces in stressing the importance of planning for the vaccine, despite the ongoing public health crisis.
“The pandemic sweeping the globe requires a coordinated effort and commitment of resources to ensure frontline health workers around the world are protected, as they face and respond to this new threat,UNCEF’s statement issued on April 14 reads. “At the same time, we must also champion efforts to protect essential immunization services, now and for the future.”
“The pandemic sweeping the globe requires a coordinated effort and commitment of resources to ensure frontline health workers around the world are protected, as they face and respond to this new threat,” today’s statement reads. “At the same time, we must also champion efforts to protect essential immunization services, now and for the future.”
“If the difficult choice to pause vaccination is made due to the spread of COVID-19, we urge leaders to intensify efforts to track unvaccinated children, so that the most vulnerable populations can be provided with measles vaccines as soon as it becomes possible to do so.”
