Vaccination rates among children — notably for measles, polio, and hepatitis — have dropped globally, a report published by the World Health Organization in mid-July noted. The global drop has also reached Lebanon, but UNICEF and Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health told L'Orient Today that they have partnered to change this.
“The report regards children as vaccinated or unvaccinated on the basis of whether the child took the complete vaccination dose, and whether the child took it at the required age,” Dr. Bhrigu Kapuria, Immunization Specialist at UNICEF Lebanon, explained. “So if a child took two doses of a three-dose vaccine, the report does not regard them as vaccinated.”
"In Lebanon, only 55 percent of children under one year old have received all the necessary and timely doses of vaccines," Kapuria explained.
Mobile vaccination centers and solar-powered vaccine storage
In response to a public healthcare system strained by a lack of proper funding, and an ongoing economic and political crisis, UNICEF has been providing vaccines free of charge and regardless of nationality.
The UN agency’s efforts are closely aligned with Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health (MOPH). In collaboration with public health sector nurses and doctors, 125 public health centers have been established country-wide to administer vaccines and provide other essential healthcare services, and more than 1,000 nurses have been trained in vaccine administration.
