
The rise in global conflicts led to a decrease in childhood vaccination rates in 2023, causing 14.5 million children to miss vaccination drives for diseases like diphtheria and whooping cough.
UN estimates showed an increase from 13.9 million children missing vaccinations the year before, although this number was lower than during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conflict-Affected countries like Sudan, Yemen, and Afghanistan had a significant increase in unvaccinated children, with more than half of the world's unvaccinated children residing in fragile or conflict-affected nations.