Over 830,000 children in Tigray region of Ethiopia have been successfully vaccinated against measles as part of the new immunization campaign following a two-year conflict in the northern part of the east African nation, WHO said on Thursday.
WHO said the campaign that was conducted between March and April in collaboration with the UN Children Fund (UNICEF) and other UN agencies included acute malnutrition screening for children under five along with pregnant and lactating women.
The campaign also vaccinated mothers against COVID-19.
WHO said last year the COVID-19 pandemic along with conflict, climate change, and rising vaccine hesitancy causes millions of children to miss out essential immunization, leading to the outbreak of diarrhea, polio, measles, and yellow fever.
The UN health agency advocated for a big catch up to restore essential immunization coverage at least to 2019 levels.
According to the UN, Ethiopia is one the 20 countries whose three- fourth of their children missed out essential vaccination in 2021.
MG/abj/APA