THE World Health Organisation has revealed how many children across the world are unvaccinated, saying it is causing millions of “unnecessary deaths”.

The peak health body says a fifth of the world’s children are still not receiving routine lifesaving vaccinations.
It went on to warn that efforts to ensure global immunisation coverage remain “far off track”.
Nearly 22 million infants, many living in the world’s poorest countries, missed out in 2013 on the routine vaccine against diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus (DTP3), WHO said, citing the latest available data.                      Unnecessary deaths ... Nearly 22 million infants, many living in the world’s poorest countries, missed out in 2013 on the routine vaccine against diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus. Picture: Supplied                                                           Nearly half of them are in three countries: India, Pakistan and Nigeria.
This is of grave concern, said Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele, head of WHO’s vaccine unit, pointing out that there are still 1.5 million premature deaths due to vaccine-preventable diseases each year.
“Today WHO is calling for the global community to close the immunisation gap and the unnecessary disability and deaths caused by the failure to vaccinate,” he told reporters in Geneva ahead of World Immunisation Week, which starts on Friday.  
                                                                                   The world has made great strides in recent decades in raising immunisation rates — from as low as five per cent in some countries in the mid-1970s to a global average of 84 per cent in 2013.
And 129 countries boast immunisation levels above 90 per cent, with vaccines estimated to save as many as three million lives each year.
But Okwo-Bele warned the progress had been “plateauing” in recent years, despite a commitment in 2012 by all WHO members to a plan to ensure all children are immunised.
There are a number of reasons for the lack of progress, including the cost of vaccines, weak health systems and lack of access in poorer countries.
Armed conflicts and insecurity also limit access, as do emergencies like the west African Ebola outbreak.