MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd April, 2020) Disrupting the existing immunization services during the COVID-19 pandemic is fraught with triggering a resurgence of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks, such as measles and polio, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a press release on Thursday.
"While the world strives to develop a new vaccine for COVID-19 at record speed, we must not risk losing the fight to protect everyone, everywhere against vaccine-preventable diseases. These diseases will come roaring back if we do not vaccinate," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, as quoted in the press release.
According to the organization, any such outbreak will risk overwhelming health systems across the world already battling the impacts of COVID-19.
Though the WHO has made a tremendous progress in providing children globally with vaccines against diphtheria, measles, polio and other preventable disease, it fears now that vaccination rates could fall due to delay or suspension of scheduled immunization activities as a result of COVID-19.
The organization has called upon governments to facilitate urgent catch up programs in places where services have been disrupted, ensuring strong supply chains, disease surveillance and trained health workers. It also urged caregivers to make sure they continue to vaccinate their children in line with national policies.
