QUEZON CITY, (PIA) -- Trust in giving vaccines to toddlers dropped by 25 percent amid the COVID-19 pandemic, making the Philippines one of the countries with the most number of "zero-dose children" in the world.

"Of the 67 million children globally, who missed out on routine vaccination between 2019 and 2022, 48 million did not receive a single routine vaccine, also known as 'zero-dose.' The Philippines has one million zero dose children, the second highest in East Asia and the Pacific Region, and the fifth highest globally," according to UNICEF Tuesday, in line with the observance of World Immunization Week 2023.

The agency said that public perception of the importance of vaccines for children against various diseases has decreased in 52 of the 55 countries studied.

"According to the Vaccine Confidence Project and published today by UNICEF, the perception of the importance of vaccines for children declined by about 25 [%] in the Philippines and by more than a third in the Republic of Korea, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Senegal, and Japan after the start of the pandemic," UNICEF said in a statement earlier.

Only China, India and Mexico maintained or improved the perception of the importance of the vaccine.

In most countries, people aged 35 and under appeared to be more likely to have low trust for children after the pandemic began.

However, overall support for vaccines remains high at the moment. In half of the 55 countries surveyed, 80 percent said it was important for children.

Among the routine vaccinations given in the Philippines are against tuberculosis, hepatitis B, polio, pneumonia, measles, mumps, rubella, etc.

Vaccine hesitancy in the Philippines

According to UNICEF, which is a United Nations agency that responds to youth welfare, vaccine hesitancy in the Philippines can be attributed to cultural factors and fear of the health of vaccines.

"At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists rapidly developed COVID-19 vaccines that saved countless lives. But despite this historic achievement, fear, and disinformation about all types of vaccines circulated as widely as the virus itself," said Catherine Russel, executive director of UNICEF.

"This data is a worrying warning signal. We cannot allow confidence in routine immunizations to become another victim of the pandemic. Otherwise, the next wave of deaths could be of more children with measles, diphtheria, or other preventable diseases."

It can be recalled that those opposed to vaccination against COVID-19 protested during the height of the deadly virus in the Philippines. (PIA-NCR)