Global Routine Vaccination Coverage - 2017

Abstract

Endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2012, the Global Vaccine Action Plan 2011-2020 (GVAP) (1) calls on all countries to reach ≥90% national coverage with all vaccines in the country's national immunization schedule by 2020. This report updates previous reports (2,3) and presents global, regional, and national vaccination coverage estimates and trends as of 2017. It also describes the number of infants surviving to age 1 year (surviving infants) who did not receive the third dose of diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and pertussis-containing vaccine (DTP3), a key indicator of immunization program performance (4,5), with a focus on the countries with the highest number of children who did not receive DTP3 in 2017. Based on the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates, global DTP3 coverage increased from 79% in 2007 to 84% in 2010, and has remained stable from 2010 to 2017 (84% to 85%). In 2017, among the 19.9 million children who did not receive DTP3 in the first year of life, 62% (12.4 million) lived in 10 countries. From 2007 to 2017, the number of children who had not received DTP3 decreased in five of these 10 countries and remained stable or increased in the other five. Similar to DTP3 coverage, global coverage with the first measles-containing vaccine dose (MCV1) increased from 80% in 2007 to 84% in 2010, and has remained stable from 2010 to 2017 (84% to 85%). Coverage with the third dose of polio vaccine (Pol3) has remained stable at 84%-85% since 2010. From 2007 to 2017, estimated global coverage with the second MCV dose (MCV2) increased from 33% to 67%, as did coverage with the completed series of rotavirus (2% to 28%), pneumococcal conjugate (PCV) (4% to 44%), rubella (26% to 52%), Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) (25% to 72%) and hepatitis B (HepB) (birth dose: 24% to 43%; 3-dose series: 63% to 84%) vaccines. Targeted, context-specific strategies are needed to reach and sustain high vaccination coverage, particularly in countries with the highest number of unvaccinated children.

FIGURE

Number of surviving infants and children who did not receive DTP3 (unvaccinated) by age 1 year — India and Nigeria, 1997–2017 Abbreviation: DTP3 = third dose of diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and pertussis-containing vaccine. * Number of children surviving to age 1 year. ^† The number of children not receiving DTP3 is calculated based on yearly estimates of the number of surviving infants and DTP3 coverage rates.