Vaccination Childhood vaccination rates have stagnated in many places since 2010, according to study
Progress in childhood vaccination has stalled. For decades, the number of children vaccinated against measles, polio and the like rose. However, according to a new study, the vaccination rate has stagnated in many countries since 2010 - in some it has even fallen back.
25.06.2025, 00:30
SDA
Millions of children are therefore at risk from deadly diseases, warn international experts in a study published in the journal "Lancet" on Wednesday night.
However, according to the study, Switzerland is doing comparatively well. According to the study, 96.8 percent of children in Switzerland received the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine in their first year of life in 2023. This puts Switzerland in the top third worldwide and around mid-table among Western European countries.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data from 204 countries and regions on the development of so-called routine childhood vaccinations.
Overall, global vaccination coverage improved significantly between 1980 and 2023: the vaccination rate against diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, polio and tuberculosis doubled during this period. At the same time, the number of so-called "zero-dose children" - i.e. children who have not received a single dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine - has fallen by around 75 percent worldwide.
Covid pandemic exacerbated the trend
Since 2010, however, progress has stalled or even been reversed in many countries: for example, measles vaccination rates fell in 100 out of 204 countries between 2010 and 2019. In 21 out of 36 high-income countries, vaccination coverage for at least one of the key childhood vaccinations fell during this period.
The Covid-19 pandemic further exacerbated the situation. The number of zero-dose children reached 18.6 million during the pandemic. By 2023, it had fallen again to 15.7 million. More than half of these unvaccinated children live in just eight countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
