More than 14 million children globally have not received a single dose of any vaccine, a report from the World Health Organization and UNICEF warned.

Another 5.7 million children only have partial protection against preventable diseases, as they have not received all of the recommended doses of certain vaccines.

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“The latest estimates highlight a really concerning trajectory,” Dr. Kate O’Brien, director of WHO’s Department of Immunization, Vaccines, and Biologicals, said in a news briefing.

“The global vision is for everyone everywhere to benefit from lifesaving vaccines,” she said. “But we’ve hit this very stubborn glass ceiling, and breaking through that glass to protect more children against vaccine-preventable diseases is becoming more difficult.”

Increased conflict and wars worldwide have increased the number of unvaccinated children. There are nine countries, Nigeria, India, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Angola, that account for 52% of all children who have never received a dose of a vaccine.

Dr. Ephrem Lemango, UNICEF’s associate director for health and global chief of immunization, noted that in high-income countries, rising anti-vaccine sentiment and distrust in institutions have contributed to any downturns in vaccination rates, not a lack of availability, as in low-income countries.

“Based on all we know, over the past 50 years, over 150 million lives were saved through vaccination, and this has been able to protect children from any form of vaccine-preventable disease,” Lemango said at the briefing.

He noted, “Misinformation and any forms of vaccine hesitance are a reflection of a broader lack of trust or mistrust in the systems that deliver the vaccines, in the health workers that provide the vaccines, and in the manufacturing facilities or the ecosystems that manufacture the vaccines. So it is important to see misinformation or lack of information as part of a broader ecosystem to be able to address.”

Compared to 2023, 171,000 fewer children remained unvaccinated than last year.  

In 2024, childhood vaccination rates against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis remained constant, with an estimated 89% of children globally receiving at least one dose of the DTP vaccine, the same figure as in 2022 and 2023.

Around 20.6 million children did not receive their routine first dose of the measles vaccine in 2024, but the percentage of children that received their second dose increased from 73% in 2022 and 74% in 2023 to 76% in 2024.

MEASLES OUTBREAK THREATENS US’S 25-YEAR ELIMINATION STATUS: UN AGENCY

“The good news is that we have managed to reach more children with life-saving vaccines. But millions of children remain without protection against preventable diseases, and that should worry us all,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in the news release. “We must act now with determination to overcome barriers like shrinking health budgets, fragile health systems, along with misinformation and access constraints because of conflicts. No child should die from a disease we know how to prevent.”

The WHO report is based on data from 195 countries.