{"id":1551,"date":"2025-07-19T11:40:39","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T11:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/?p=1551"},"modified":"2025-07-19T11:40:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T11:40:39","slug":"sudans-children-face-growing-threat-of-deadly-infectious-diseases-as-vaccination-rates-halve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/sudans-children-face-growing-threat-of-deadly-infectious-diseases-as-vaccination-rates-halve\/","title":{"rendered":"Sudan\u2019s children face growing threat of deadly infectious diseases as vaccination rates halve"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The country, beset by war, has the world\u2019s lowest rates of vaccination, says the World Health Organization, as global immunisation drive also stalls.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Children in Sudan, caught up in what aid organisations have called the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and threatened by rising levels of violence, are increasingly vulnerable to deadly infectious diseases as vaccinations in the country plummet.<\/p>\n

In 2022, more than 90% of young children in Sudan received their routine vaccinations. But that figure has nearly halved to 48%, the lowest in the world, according to the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n

Globally, more than 14 million infants remain unvaccinated\u00a0and the world is not on track to meet goals of halving the number of these “zero-dose” children\u00a0compared with 2019 levels by 2030, the WHO reported on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

While misinformation and vaccine hesitancy have driven falls in immunisation in some countries, \u201cthat has not been the problem here\u201d, said Dr Tedbabe Degefie Hailegebriel, chief of health for UNICEF Sudan . \u201cThis plummeting coverage is driven entirely by the war.\u201d<\/p>\n

The country’s civil war\u00a0began two years ago and has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions more, in what the International Rescue Committee has called \u201cthe biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded\u201d.<\/p>\n

There were 838,000 children in Sudan last year who did not receive a single dose of vaccine \u2013 the third-highest figure in the world, behind only Nigeria (2.1 million) and India (909,000).<\/p>\n

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Internally displaced children in a camp in South Kordofan state.<\/span> Photograph: Thomas Mukoya\/Reuters<\/em><\/h6>\n

The proportion of children who have received a DTP-1 jab \u2013 the first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine \u2013 is seen as a key indicator of access to essential healthcare. Missing it, Hailegebriel said, meant a \u201cchild, and most probably also their parents, have almost zero contact with the health system\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said the war had hit Sudan\u2019s health service hard, with people displaced and the physical destruction of health facilities, supply lines and information systems \u201cthat makes the health service functional\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealth workers \u2013 doctors, nurses, midwives, community volunteers \u2013 have not been paid in months. And just the basic infrastructure \u2013 the clean water available to health facilities, the electricity availability to health facilities \u2013 is totally destroyed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Disease outbreaks in Sudan tend to affect people who have \u201clost your safe place, your home, your protection, however modest that might be\u201d, and find themselves in camps or temporary accommodation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that is coupled with an already vulnerable child who is not vaccinated, the vulnerability is compounded,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Diseases that can be prevented with vaccination, including measles, not only kill but can leave survivors with long-term complications, Hailegebriel said, adding that these were \u201cchildren who are robbed of their future\u201d.<\/p>\n

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A measles jab is given by a M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res nurse in Jebel Marra. MSF says there have been outbreaks of measles across four Darfur states.<\/span> Photograph: Thibault Fendler\/MSF<\/em><\/h6>\n

The WHO said war and conflicts around the world were a major threat to immunisation progress, with children living in one of 26 countries \u201caffected by fragility, conflict or humanitarian emergencies\u201d being three times more likely to be unvaccinated than their counterparts in stable countries.<\/p>\n

However, there were \u201cemerging signs of slippage\u201d or stalling progress in many parts of the world, said Dr Kate O\u2019Brien, director of the WHO\u2019s immunisation, vaccines and biologicals department.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the smallest drops in immunisation coverage as measured at the country level can have devastating consequences. It opens the door to deadly disease outbreaks and puts even more pressure on health systems that are already stretched,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

And while access to vaccination remains the main issue worldwide, \u201cwe\u2019re extremely concerned about mis- and disinformation because of the threat it has to worsen the situation\u201d.<\/p>\n

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A vaccination centre in Kassala state in July.<\/span> Photograph: Mohammed Abdulmajid\/Unicef<\/em><\/h6>\n

O\u2019Brien said she expected cuts to aid funding to affect vaccine coverage in future years, with countries struggling to raise domestic finance.<\/p>\n

Humanitarian efforts had succeeded in boosting vaccination rates in the first half of this year in Sudan, said Hailegebriel, but Unicef\u2019s appeal for the country remained unfunded.<\/p>\n

The charity has shipped in containers to rebuild the country\u2019s “cold chain\u201d, vital for keeping vaccines and other essential medicines at the right temperature so they remain effective on the journey from factory to patient. But when conflict flares those efforts have to stop.<\/p>\n

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Wars and conflict causing huge drop in global vaccinations, UN warns<\/em><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIn areas where there was active fighting, active conflict, of course we will not be able to deliver,\u201d she said. \u201cBut when the situation changes, that\u2019s when we move in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe destruction is unspeakable. The whole infrastructure gets damaged, medicines get looted. So whenever you go into those new areas, it is again rebuilding to make sure the already shaking health system doesn\u2019t collapse further.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation of Sudan has not received the world\u2019s attention it deserves,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is our hope that this will change, and these hostilities stop so that children get the peaceful environment they need to live and thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdallah Idriss Abugarda, who leads the Darfur Diaspora Association in the UK, said the situation in the Darfur region was becoming more difficult, particularly in the besieged city of El Fasher.<\/p>\n

That meant, Abugarda said, that most families he spoke to in Sudan had more pressing concerns than vaccination. \u201cIt\u2019s not a priority to them \u2013 they want to have food delivered, and medicine for malaria and fever for the children.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Source: The Guardian<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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