Child Vaccinations Successful In Asia But Poorest Still Suffer, U.N. Says

November 20, 2002

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Efforts to immunize children against disease have been more successful in developing Asian countries than in other parts of the world, spurred by the region's economic growth and health care advances in recent decades, a United Nations official said Wednesday.

An average of about 85 percent of children in countries from Myanmar to Papua New Guinea have been vaccinated against measles, tetanus and other illnesses.

"Compared to other regions in the developing world, this region has done very well," said Mehr Khan, UNICEF director for East Asia and the Pacific, at the release in Bangkok of a report on vaccines and immunization.

But governments and public health agencies could also face the re-emergence of some diseases thought to be largely eradicated if they fail to allocate funds for child immunization, Khan added.

Asian children who receive vaccinations tend to live in urban or easily accessible areas, while the 15 percent who don't are often poor and members of ethnic minorities in rural areas, Khan said.

Among the countries that have made strides are Vietnam, Thailand, China and North Korea - which have up to 90 percent of their children immunized - she said, quoting the report by UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the World Bank.

The rate in countries such as Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Papua New Guinea and Myanmar has been lower, but vaccination levels have increased rapidly in some countries, particularly Indonesia.

Governments should take responsibility for fighting diseases that follow the heavy flow of migrants around Asia by investing in "health care infrastructure," Khan said.

"There aren't enough vaccines for the diseases we need to cope with in the developing world because the demand is dropping, and so we have to increase the demand again" to get manufacturers make more vaccines, she told reporters.

About 25 percent of the world's children have not been immunized against diseases for which vaccines are available, and about 3 million people die annually from preventable diseases worldwide, the report said.

Poor children account for more than half of all deaths from diseases including polio, diphtheria, measles, tetanus and pertussis, or whooping cough, the report said.

Only about half of children in sub-Saharan Africa are immunized during the first year of life, according to the report.