More than 20 million children a year missed out on measles vaccines across the world in the past eight years, laying a path of exposure to a virus that is now causing disease outbreaks globally, a United Nations report said.
“The measles virus will always find unvaccinated children,” said Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of the United Nations children’s fund UNICEF, adding: “The ground for the global measles outbreaks we are witnessing today was laid years ago.”
The UNICEF report said an estimated 169 million children missed out on the first dose of the measles vaccine between 2010 and 2017 —equating to 21.1 million children a year on average.