November 11, 2022
OHT researchers used household data from India’s National Family Health Survey 2019-2021, a large-scale nationally representative child health survey conducted between June 2019 and April 2021 to estimate the effects of the pandemic on childhood vaccination in India. Children born in India after COVID-19 emergence had a 2 to 10 percent lower probability of immunization and a 3 to 5 percent lower probability of timely vaccination than their siblings born before the pandemic. Among population subgroups, COVID-affected male children and those from rural areas experienced the highest reduction in vaccine coverage. Even in the relatively late stages of the pandemic — until April 2021 —routine childhood immunization rates had not recovered to pre-pandemic levels in India, and the effects are potentially severe for dropout vaccination, that is, older children not finishing their full vaccination schedules.
Find the article in The Lancet Regional Health – Southeast Asia, here.
