"No child should ever suffer from a vaccine preventable disease, yet millions of children around the world are classed as 'zero dose'having never received a routine vaccination," writes Dr. Tewodros Gebremichael at Save the Children.
That's because more than a third of children in Nigeria and Ethiopia live in areas where conflict, poverty, climate change, instability, and pandemics are disrupting vaccination campaigns, he writes in a blog post.
In Ethiopia, for example, "some of the challenges we experience with families getting their children vaccinated are misinformation, complacency, convenience, and trust due to cultural and religious beliefssometimes related to the health system's capacity to identify and address the reasons for such vaccine hesitancy," Gebremichael writes.
That's why Save the Children has launched the Immunisation Acceleratora new initiative, funded by GlaxoSmithKline, to empower local organizations in Ethiopia and Nigeria and fast-track cutting-edge solutions to tackle long-standing vaccine hesitancy.
Since 2013, Save the Children and GSK have reached more than 3.5 million children with vaccines, but "there's still a long way to go, and there are many potential solutions and innovations we are yet to explore," Gebremichael writes.
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