Global vaccination efforts stall, leaving millions of children vulnerable to preventable diseases

Source: AP

Updated 6:30 PM EDT, June 24, 2025


LONDON (AP) — Efforts to vaccinate children globally have stalled since 2010, leaving millions vulnerable to tetanus, polio, tuberculosis and other diseases that can be easily prevented.

Protection from measles in particular dropped in 100 countries between 2010 and 2019, unravelling decades of progress, including in rich countries that had previously eliminated the highly infectious disease, according to a new analysis of global vaccination trends published Tuesday in the journal Lancet.

“After clean water, vaccination is the most effective intervention for protecting the health of our children,” said Helen Bedford, a professor of children’s health at University College London, who was not connected to the research. She warned there has been a small but worrying rise in the number of parents skipping vaccination for their children in recent years, for reasons including misinformation.

In Britain, Bedford said that has resulted in the largest number of measles recorded since the 1990s and the deaths of nearly a dozen babies from whooping cough. Vaccination rates in the U.S. are also falling, and exemptions from vaccinations are at an all-time high.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/measles-tetanus-vaccine-children-preventable-disease-e33a36e55d70381e4659874a2ecb371a