India among 3 countries where vaccines’ importance held firm: UNICEF

India is one of three countries out of 55 where the perception of the importance of vaccines held firm or improved after the Covid-19 pandemic, according to UNICEF. However, India is home to about 2.7 million of the world’s zero-dose children, UNICEF stated. Zero-dose children are those who have not received a single routine vaccine. “Despite the increase in the number of zero-dose children to three million during the pandemic, India was able to arrest the backslide between 2020 and 2021 to bring the number of zero-dose children down to 2.7 million thanks to unwavering political commitment and sustained evidence-based catch-up campaigns initiated by the government, including the fourth Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) and its continued provision of comprehensive Primary Health Care services,” said Vivek Virendra Singh, a health specialist at UNICEF. The public perception of the importance of vaccines for children declined during the COVID-19 pandemic in 52 of the 55 countries studied, UNICEF said in its annual flagship report ‘The State of the World’s Children – 2023’, based on the theme of immunisation. “For every child, vaccination reveals the perception of the importance of vaccines for children declined by more than a third in South Korea, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Senegal and Japan after the start of the pandemic,” it said.