NEW DELHI: More than two million infants remain completely unvaccinated in the Southeast Asia region, and approximately 6.5 lakh do not receive all the recommended vaccines, the WHO said on April 25.On the occasion of World Immunisation Week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in 59 years, vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives.“What started in 1974 as the Expanded Programme on Immunization focused on six childhood illnesses and has today evolved to thirteen universally recommended vaccines across the life course. In these 50 years, vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives – a remarkable 6 lives saved each minute, every day, for five decades,” Saima Wazed, Regional Director for WHO South-East Asia Region, said.“More children now live to see their first birthday than at any other time in human history, and the measles vaccine alone accounts for 60 per cent of those lives saved. Immunisation campaigns have enabled us to eradicate smallpox, eliminate polio in our South-East Asia Region, and bring neonatal and maternal tetanus down to extremely low levels,” she added.It is clear that vaccines are, undoubtedly, one of humanity’s greatest achievements, she stressed.She said in the region, which includes India, over forty million pregnant women and thirty-seven million newborns are vaccinated annually.“We are also a global leader in vaccine production, with 46 per cent of the world’s supply. These achievements are significant, but we have much more to do. More than two million infants remain completely unvaccinated in our region, and approximately 650,000 do not receive all the recommended vaccines. Covid-19 also saw progress on immunisation stall, resulting in the need for continued catch-up vaccination today. This is evident in the diphtheria and measles outbreaks that have unfortunately started occurring,” she said.
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