Almost 84% kids in B'desh get vaccines by 12 months of age: Unicef

Dhaka, April 21 Valid immunisation coverage in Bangladesh remains high, with almost 84 per cent of children receiving their vaccines by 12 months of age, according to a new report published here by the Unicef.

According to the report titled "The State of the World's Children 2023: For Every Child, Vaccination", valid coverage is when a child receives all vaccines due in their first 12 months.

In Bangladesh, health services were initially impacted when the country went into the Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020, leading to coverage falling below 50 per cent in the following months, Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying.

However, with the support from Unicef, the Bangladesh government moved quickly to address the decline in immunization, and the monthly uptake of vaccines surpassed pre-Covid levels by October 2020.

According to the report, the number of zero-dose children in the South Asian country is 30,000, or less than 1 per cent, of children aged under one year.

Coverage in hard-to-reach areas and urban slums remain low compared to the national coverage, it said.

In 2022, the UN agency had said it delivered 173 million childhood vaccine doses for a value of $80 million.

The success of the child immunization program in Bangladesh is a testament to what is possible when there is sustained political commitment and a well-trained and motivated health workforce, said Sheldon Yett, the Unicef representative to Bangladesh.

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