Think about that for just one moment.
These days, we are surrounded by facts and figures, statistics and graphs but by the time you have read this article, someone will have died from a disease that could have been prevented.
Every twenty seconds. Three per minute.
Here’s another startling stat: 1 in 5 children is unable to receive vaccinations because of unequal access to immunisation services. Even in Gavi countries, 1 in 4 kids is unvaccinated.
And another: More than 70% of the world’s unimmunised children live in only 10 countries, mainly in Africa and Asia.
Watch this UNICEF video about unequal access to vaccines. It follows two mothers in South Africa on their very different journeys to have their children vaccinated.
The story is part of UNICEF’s campaign to improve access to vaccination for children in low-income countries.
As the video shows, sometimes parents travel a long way with their children and queue for hours only to find the clinic has run out of vaccines.
In some cases, large populations and fragile immunisation structures make families in rural regions and impoverished areas of cities difficult to reach.
In more remote areas, vaccines have to travel miles too – and they must be kept at a stable temperature along the way. (Read more about the vaccine ‘cold chain’ in the Central African Republic).
Your vaccines are in a fridge at your local clinic or pharmacy.
When the time comes to visit the doctor for your child’s next vaccine – think of the distances that some people, and some vaccines, have to travel.
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June 6th, 2020
[…] causes of death are being supplemented by coronavirus, not replaced by it. A child dies every 20 seconds from a disease that they could have been vaccinated against, and the current crisis does not reduce […]