UNICEF warns Lebanese children risk serious illness due to decline in vaccination rates

BEIRUT — The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that children in Lebanon face severe illness because of a decline in routine immunization as the economic crisis in the country worsens.

UNICEF indicated that the routine vaccination of children in Lebanon fell by 31 percent, pointing out that earlier immunization rates were already alarmingly low, resulting in a large number of unvaccinated children exposed to preventable serious diseases.

According to UNICEF, the sharp decline in systematic vaccination rates has left children vulnerable to life-threatening diseases such as measles, diphtheria, and pneumonia.

UNICEF stressed the need to maintain the “cooling chain” necessary for vaccines in a country where fuel prices had risen significantly, posing a new threat to essential services, such as the delivery of vaccines.

Economic degradation had led to a massive exodus of health workers and restrictions on the importation of drugs and medical equipment had aggravated the health crisis.