Last year, 25 million children missed out on one or more "lifesaving vaccines" according to a new report from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
"This is 2 million more than those who missed out in 2020 and 6 million more than in 2019, highlighting the growing number of children at risk from devastating but preventable diseases," the report notes. Those diseases include tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, hepatitis B, measles, rubella, rotavirus, pneumonia, yellow fever and HPV.
The trend represents the largest "continued backslide" in childhood vaccinations in 30 years, says the report.
