The alarm was raised more than a year ago, with a study by leading global institutions early in 2020 highlighting a decline in routine vaccination of children, even before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. It warned that the situation could worsen during the outbreak due to disruption caused by lockdowns as well as a creaking healthcare infrastructure.

The report, by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control, said that measles cases surged globally in 2019, reaching their highest levels in 23 years, while deaths caused by the disease, which mainly affects children, rose by 50 percent since 2016.

In 2019, measles claimed 207,500 lives, while the number of new cases rose to 870,000. The story was no better with other preventable diseases, such as polio and diphtheria.

A year later, a report by the medical journal The Lancet confirmed that the warnings had fallen on deaf ears, with the leaders of most countries failing to take steps to boost routine vaccination and the world appearing to crumble in the face of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) onslaught.

In its report, The Lancet said that routine immunization services have taken a back seat and governments are not yet ready to normalize the process. It is indeed crucial, even critical, that governments ensure the battle against the most common and most potent of childhood preventable diseases is not lost, even as the world struggles against coronavirus. Last year, more than 30 million children missed doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine and 27 million missed doses of measles vaccine.

More worrying still, The Lancet, UNICEF and the WHO all warn that disruption to routine vaccinations is far from over, and that millions of children, primarily in the world’s poorest regions of sub-Saharan Africa as well as South Asia, will pay a heavy price for the stalling of progress.

The data is scary. In South Asia, for example, India dominated the number of missed vaccines, with its measles vaccine coverage dipping below 86 percent, and diphtheria and tetanus to be below 75 percent of eligible children.

Moreover, experts are warning that amid a sharp spike in infections, deaths could surpass COVID-19 fatalities, especially in the Indian subcontinent, erasing almost two decades of efforts by the governments and children’s organizations to eliminate these diseases.

The phrase “No one is safe until everyone is safe” may have been used a lot lately, but this is the lesson that global leaders need to learn and learn now.

Ranvir S. Nayar

Most of the children who have missed routine vaccination in India and elsewhere are from the poorer sections of the society. Missed doses at any time can be highly risky for the physical as well as financial well-being of the entire family or even communities. But coming as they do in the midst of the pandemic, the impact could be magnified. Lockdowns and severe economic disruption have already hit the poor, pushing hundreds of millions back into extreme poverty, as World Bank reports show.

In such a situation, they would struggle to deal with the consequences of their children falling ill to any of these preventable diseases.

So, governments and philanthropic organizations must work in the worst-affected countries to ramp up or resume routine vaccinations in an effort to meet existing targets and also make up for the shortfalls of the past two years.

This is not only for the sake of poorer people in these countries — national leaders need to realize that adequately vaccinating children will bring important benefits for their governments as well. Any outbreak of these illnesses can only add to the pressure on the already fragile health care infrastructures that have been overwhelmed by the pandemic.

It is in the interest of governments as well as citizens that these vaccinations proceed normally, even in the midst of the pandemic.

The developed countries of the world should also join in this effort, even if they appear to be much better off than their poorer counterparts. Governments everywhere are unlikely to forget anytime soon that communicable diseases have a way of spreading rapidly and out of control, even before anyone remarks on them.

Moreover, some diseases, such as measles, are nowhere near being eradicated, even in the most developed parts of the world. Take the US, for example.

Barely six years ago, more than 130 people contracted measles during an outing at Disneyland in California. The outbreak was curbed before it could get out of hand, but nevertheless it revealed that the chain of defense against any communicable disease is only as strong as its weakest link.

The phrase “No one is safe until everyone is safe” may have been used a lot lately, but this is the lesson that global leaders need to learn and learn now.

  • Ranvir S. Nayar is managing editor of Media India Group, a global platform based in Europe and India, which encompasses publishing, communication, and consultation services.