India has the second highest number of kids who did not receive any vaccine at all in 2023, 1.6 million, just after Nigeria with 2.1 million “zero dose children”, according to a Unicef data.
This 2023 report of WHO/Unicef estimates of National Immunisation Coverage (WUENIC) was based on member states reporting to WHO and Unicef up to July 1, 2024, the 2024 World Bank Development Indicators Online and United Nations Population Division, 2024 revision.
“The number of completely unvaccinated children (“zero-dose”) is slightly up from last year (by 600,000 from 13.9 million to 14.5 million) and is still 1.7 million higher than in 2019,” stated the report. It added that some children also “drop out”, i.e., receive a first but not a third protective dose of DTP. The total number of un- and under-immunised children stands at 21 million in 2023, 2.7 million above the baseline value.
India also had the third highest number of “measles zero dose children”, 1.6 million. Nigeria with 2.8 million and Democratic Republic of Congo with 2 million children took the top spots. India was among ten countries accounting for 55% of children without measles vaccines globally. Some other countries on the list include some of the poorest in the world like Yemen, Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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