In 2018, 872,828 children in Ethiopia did not receive the third dose of the pentavalent vaccine, which protects against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough among other diseases, according to new WHO and UNICEF estimates.
A health worker vaccinates a child in Ethiopia, June 2014 (Kalpita.chakrabortty, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) [file photo]
Another 1,215,724 Ethiopian children missed their first dose of measles vaccine, and 467,586 had never been vaccinated at all, UNICEF Ethiopia said. By the agencies’ count, Ethiopia had the fifth-largest number of unimmunised children in the world.
The picture is mixed. Coverage for the first and third doses of the pentavalent vaccine rose from 77 percent in 2010 to 85 percent in 2018. Measles coverage went the other way, slipping from 64 percent to 61 percent over the same period.
Worldwide, 20 million children, more than one in ten, missed vaccines such as measles, diphtheria and tetanus in 2018, WHO and UNICEF said on 15 July 2019. Global coverage with three doses of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine and one dose of measles vaccine has stalled at around 86 percent since 2010. Health officials say 95 percent is needed to protect communities from outbreaks.
Most unvaccinated children live in the poorest countries, and many are in fragile or conflict-hit states. Almost half live in just 16 countries, a list that includes Ethiopia and its neighbours Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, as well as Yemen across the Red Sea.
WHO and UNICEF have produced national immunisation estimates every year since 2000. The third pentavalent or DTP dose, given to children under one, is the main yardstick for how many children are being reached by routine vaccination.
Sources: UNICEF Ethiopia, World Health Organization, Addis Standard, Ethiopian Monitor