Millions of Children Are at Risk for Measles as Coronavirus Fears Halt Vaccines

More than 100 million children could be at risk for measles because countries around the world are suspending national immunization programs in order to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection, international public health leaders warned on Monday.

So far, 24 low- and middle-income countries, including Mexico, Nigeria and Cambodia, have paused or postponed such programs, according to the Measles and Rubella Initiative, a consortium whose members include UNICEF, the American Red Cross, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Unlike wealthier countries, where parents typically make appointments to follow a routine vaccine schedule at clinics or private pediatric offices, these countries inoculate large numbers of infants and children in communal settings, like marketplaces, schools, churches and mosques.

Dr. Robin Nandy, the chief of immunization for UNICEF, acknowledged that finding the balance between guarding against the spread of Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, and preventable diseases like measles was delicate and difficult.

“In our quest to vaccinate kids, we shouldn’t contribute to the spread of Covid-19,” he said. “But we don’t want a country that is recovering from an outbreak of it to then be dealing with a measles or diphtheria outbreak.”

Dr. Nandy said that public health organizations had endorsed new immunization guidelines from the W.H.O., which recognize that while campaigns advocating mass inoculations should be sustained as long as safely possible, temporary suspensions might occur because of reasonable concerns about transmission of Covid-19 to patients and health care workers.

“We have to acknowledge the disruption, whether we like it or not,” Dr. Nandy said. But he urged countries to plan for shipments of vaccines and syringes to be available as soon as an easing of Covid-19 restrictions permitted and, given the limited number of international flights, even to be prepared to charter planes.

Countries should be compiling immunization registries, tracking earlier campaigns and doing risk assessments, to prioritize regions where outbreaks would be most likely and children most vulnerable, he added.