Child vaccination rates globally recorded a slight increase in 2025, yet millions of children remained without protection against preventable diseases, amid undermining of immunization efforts due to conflicts, funding cuts, and rising disease outbreaks.

According to the latest immunization estimates released by the World Health Organization and UNICEF on Wednesday, 90 percent of infants worldwide, or nearly 116 million children, received at least one dose of the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine in 2025, while 85 percent completed the recommended three doses, according to Reuters.

Ephrem Lemango, head of global immunization at UNICEF, said: 'The gains we celebrate now at this moment are very fragile,' warning that they 'can disappear very easily.' The number of children who received no doses or were unvaccinated dropped to 13.5 million in 2025 from 14.2 million in 2024; but it remained about 4 million children higher than the level needed to stay on track to halve the total number of unvaccinated children from 2019 by 2030.

Lemango noted that more than half of the world's unvaccinated children live in countries experiencing conflicts, such as Syria, Yemen, Sudan, and Palestine, even though they represent only about a third of global births.

WHO pointed out that the cuts in global funding, which began in early 2025, have not yet been reflected in the data, but they raise concerns about the 2026 outlook.

Kate O'Brien, director of the Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals at WHO, said: 'We are now seeing real gaps in the immunization system, and we expect significant risks that have not yet materialized.'

O'Brien added that WHO is already observing the impact of some of these gaps in the form of more outbreaks of measles, diphtheria, and cholera.