ABUCAY, BATAAN — One in five children globally aged zero to five years old remain unvaccinated, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Globally, in 2023, 14.5 million children were missing out on any vaccination — so-called zero-dose.

This makes them vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chickenpox, and hepatitis B, according to Dr. Madona Anabieza, immunization officer of UNICEF.

"Scary talaga po yan, kasi pag hindi bakunado, anong ibig sabihin? They are very vulnerable to diseases na actually dapat safe sila kasi mayroon nang bakuna eh (That's really scary, because what if they are very vulnerable to diseases that actually should be safe because there's a vaccine)," Anabieza said during a media forum hosted by the Department of Health (DOH).

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, there are at least 1.5 million unvaccinated children, according to UNICEF's State of the World's Children report in 2023.

From 2022 to 2022, the Philippines was the fifth country in the world with the highest number of zero-dose unvaccinated children.

Fortunately, the country improved in 2024 as it was no longer part of the top 20 countries with the most zero-dose children, having reduced the number to 163,000.

"Para mag-catch up, maraming mga catch-up immunizations na ginawa by them (To catch up, there are many catch-up immunizations done by them)," Anabieza said.

As of 20 January, the partial Field Health Services Information System data for 2024 shows that 61 percent, or 1,459,353 out of 2,392,392 eligible children in the Philippines, are already considered fully immunized due to intensified vaccination programs by the DOH.

However, zero-dose children increased from 22 percent in 2023 to 33 percent in 2024.

Among the reasons for parents' refusal to vaccinate their children are vaccine hesitancy, complacency, and inconvenience.

"For example, sa first-world countries na never na silang nakakita ng mga measles, do you think na maniniwala silang nag-e-exist ang measles? Hindi (For example, in first-world countries that have never seen measles, do you think they would believe that measles exists? No)," Anabieza continued.

"Because they haven't been seeing measles for the longest time, kaya ngayon, actually, may iba't ibang state and United States and United Kingdom, mayroon na silang outbreak ng measles. Maraming mga anti-vaxxers, lalo na sa ibang bansa (Because they haven't been seeing measles for the longest time, so now, actually, in various states in the United States and the United Kingdom, they already have outbreaks of measles. There are many anti-vaxxers, especially in other countries)," she added.

'Survival crisis'

Without vaccines, it would be a survival crisis for Filipino kids, according to Anabieza, who once also served as a doctor to the barrios.

"Vaccine hesitancy is one of the threats to global health, kasi may bakuna na eh, pero hindi pa rin mabakunahan yung mga tao o mga bata (Vaccine hesitancy is one of the threats to global health, because there's a vaccine, but people or children still cannot be vaccinated)," she lamented.

"O tingnan niyo yung mga ibang sakit na parang wala dati nagre-reemerge na naman o mga bagong sakit. So it makes the situation more difficult (Look at the other diseases that seemed to not exist before, reemerging, or new diseases appearing. So it makes the situation more difficult)," she stressed.

In September 2019, the DOH confirmed the re-emergence of polio and declared a national polio outbreak. This came almost 20 years after the Philippines was declared polio-free in 2000, and the last case of wild poliovirus was recorded in 1993.

After 18 months of comprehensive response that included intensified immunization and surveillance activities, the Health department officially concluded the polio outbreak response in June 2021.

Despite the availability of vaccines, measles also remains a cause of death among children globally, according to the World Health Organization.

From 1 January to 15 March, the DOH has recorded a total of 1,185 measles-rubella cases. This is 27 percent higher than the 930 cases logged during the same period last year.

That is why the agency reminded parents to vaccinate their children against the disease.

The DOH aims to achieve 95 percent immunization coverage for children ages zero to five.