Preventable childhood diseases, particularly measles, are resurging across Central Asia and the Caucasus, with vaccine hesitancy among parents being a key factor contributing to the rise.
Measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) have surged across the region during the post-Covid era, according to a report published March 3 by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), The Caspian Post reports citing Eurasianet.
Among Central Asian and Caucasus states, Kazakhstan registered the highest number of measles cases during the reporting period with 28,147. Azerbaijan (16,690) and Kyrgyzstan (13,961) recorded the second and third highest totals, UNICEF reported.
MMR vaccination rates across Europe and Central Asia have declined in recent years and in 2024 ranged from 73 percent to 86 percent. The report noted that children in Georgia’s separatist territory of Abkhazia were especially vulnerable to contracting measles, polio and diphtheria due to “severely weakened health systems.” Fewer than three out of 10 children in the territory had received the full cycle of the DPT3 diphtheria vaccine, it added.
The report cited vaccine hesitancy as playing a key role in declining vaccination rates. The outbreak of the Covid pandemic not only disrupted regular vaccination programs but also prompted an avalanche of mis- and disinformation about vaccines that prompted parents to keep their kids unvaccinated. As a result, 2020-2021 saw the “largest continued backslide in vaccinations” seen since the 1980s, according to UNICEF and World Health Organization data. And even as vaccination rates started to stabilize, wariness about childhood vaccines remained strong, according to a UNICEF study published in 2023.
“The decline in confidence in childhood vaccines is deeply concerning. Immunization is one of humanity’s most remarkable success stories. Too many lives are at stake to let it fall prey to a wave of fear and misinformation fueled by the pandemic,” the study quoted Philippe Cori, UNICEF’s Deputy Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, as saying.
The 2023 study identified Kyrgyzstan as having the highest number of completely unvaccinated children among all countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Georgia, meanwhile, had the highest number of under-vaccinated kids, or those who had not received all doses of vaccines, such as DPT3.
State agencies in the region launched programs in 2024 to combat vaccine mis- and disinformation. In Kyrgyzstan, the Health Ministry’s Center for Disease Prevention mounted an information campaign to dispel misconceptions that vaccines can induce autism. Public service announcements, citing British and American studies, also asserted that “there is no biological link between vaccination and morbidity.”
UNICEF reinforced the Kyrgyz governmental initiative by training health workers on MMR management and prevention best practices. The combined efforts produced quick results: the “second phase” of a 2024 vaccination campaign yielded an 88 percent overall immunization rate, according to the UNICEF report.
Elsewhere, UNICEF worked in 2024 with national governments, including in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, to strengthen national immunization plans and develop outreach efforts to identify and vaccinate “zero-dose” children. The UN agency also implemented ‘awareness-raising’ initiatives in Armenia and Kazakhstan. The report goes on to mention that UNICEF experienced a 49 percent shortfall in its $39.6 funding appeal for 2024.
The UNICEF report identifies inadequate “health personnel capacities and health system level issues” as ancillary factors in the rising number of measles cases. “Despite UNICEF’s efforts, shortages of essential medicines and trained health personnel persist, exacerbating public health risks,” the report states.
