Kids' vaccination stalls globally, WHO finds

• Public health officials portray themselves in a battle to reach millions of unprotected children, mostly in developing nations, including 14.5 million "zero dose" children who are missing out on any vaccination.

Driving the news: The annual report painted a grim picture of infectious disease prevention efforts after the pandemic and associated disruptions stretched health systems in 2020 and 2021, resulting in major setbacks.

• It's especially noteworthy because immunization is among the most successful public health interventions, and because the success of COVID-19 vaccines raised expectations that mRNA technology could be deployed against other infectious diseases.
• "What's worrisome is this continued decline in vaccination rates makes us lose our herd immunity," Sarah Smathers, a board member with the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, told Axios.
• That's leading to more outbreaks, as well as complications like hospitalizations and deaths for diseases that are largely preventable, said Smathers, an infection prevention expert at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

By the numbers: The number of children receiving three doses of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis — an important benchmark for global immunization coverage — stalled at 84% last year (108 million).

• More than half the 21 million infants that were un- or under-vaccinated last year lived in countries where conflicts and other humanitarian crises contributed to poor global vaccination rates, The Guardian reported.
• 83% of children worldwide received their first dose of the measles vaccine through routine health services, while the number receiving their second dose rose slightly from the previous year to 74%.

Bright spots include coverage for human papillomavirus (HPV), meningitis, pneumococcal, polio and rotavirus diseases. The share of adolescent girls getting at least one dose of HPV vaccine against cervical cancer increased from 20% in 2022 to 27% in 2023.

Between the lines: In the U.S., public confidence in routine childhood vaccines exceeds that for COVID-19 shots, though support for vaccine requirements in schools has slipped from pre-pandemic levels.

• "I think we all hoped it was a COVID blip and that once folks got back into the habit of regular pediatrician appointments, that this would correct itself," Niki Carelli, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Flu, who has seen similar drops in flu vaccinations for children in the U.S.
• "Vaccines are probably the greatest public health achievements that we've had in the last century and have saved hundreds of millions of lives with kids, and going in the opposite direction is just tragic," she said.

Yes, but: Doctors remain a trusted source of information about the shots, with most adults saying they have a lot of confidence or some confidence in their health care provider to give accurate information about measles, mumps and rubella vaccines.

What we're watching: A new malaria vaccine began getting distributed to children in the Ivory Coast on Monday, in a campaign health workers hope will usher in "a new era" for malaria control across Africa, the Associated Press reported.