The World Health Organisation on Wednesday called on the countries in its South-East Asia Region to accelerate action to protect all children with lifesaving vaccines being offered under the childhood immunisation programme, focusing on those who have missed all or some doses, and protect all adolescent girls from cervical cancer.

"We should aim for a big catch-up to vaccinate all zero-dose and partially-vaccinated children, and restore the immunisation progress lost during the (COVID-19) pandemic, protect all adolescent girls from cervical cancer and accelerate efforts to eliminate measles and rubella from WHO South-East Asia by 2026," said Saima Wazed, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia, in her inaugural address to the 15th meeting of the WHO South-East Asia Regional Immunisation Technical Advisory Group (SEAR-ITAG).

Wazed acknowledged and thanked all experts, national programme managers, immunisation champions and partners, including the vaccinators and community workers and the communities themselves, on the expanded immunisation programme completing 50 years this year.

"We can proudly say, in the last 50 years, together, immunisation programmes have helped hundreds of millions of people in our region live healthier, longer, more productive and prosperous lives," she said.

"Today, the South-East Asia region continues to be free of wild polio virus transmission and has maintained elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus as a public-health problem. Five countries have eliminated measles and rubella, and six have controlled hepatitis B through immunisation.

"Seven countries consistently reach over 90 per cent of children with three doses of diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus (DTP3) vaccines," Wazed said.

However, the region missed the target to eliminate measles and rubella by 2023. The WHO-UNICEF Estimates of National Immunisation Coverage data released last month shows slow progress and no meaningful change in childhood-immunisation coverage last year compared to 2022, and the coverage is yet to be restored to the pre-pandemic 2019 levels.

"Nearly 2.7 million (27 lakh) children in our region did not get any vaccine and another 0.6 million (six lakh) children were partially vaccinated in 2023. We need to understand where and why these children were missed and prioritise reaching them as soon as possible. No child should ever fall sick or die of any vaccine-preventable disease, when safe and effective vaccines exist to protect them," Wazed said.

The stagnation in post-pandemic recovery highlights the need to innovate, she added.

"We need to find locally-impactful approaches and most critically, enhance the political and social leadership that are the basis for intensified actions needed to meet our regional targets, Wazed said.

One of the priorities in the regional director's Regional Roadmap for Results and Resilience is "reaffirming investment in women, girls, adolescents and vulnerable populations".

"Against this, we must ensure that all adolescent girls in our region are protected and get at least one dose of HPV vaccine to protect them from cervical cancer," Wazed said.

Revitalising immunisation programmes, strengthening community-centred health systems, ensuring vaccine supply and boosting demand through community engagement are critical components for success. Policy and resources should urgently prioritise routine immunisation, particularly for measles, and focus on reducing zero-dose and partially-vaccinated children, she said.

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