United Nations

GENEVA, July 15 (Reuters) - Nearly 23 million children missed out on routine vaccinations last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the highest number in more than a decade, fuelling outbreaks of measles, polio and other preventable diseases, U.N. agencies said on Thursday.

Measles, one of the world's most contagious diseases, can be fatal to children under the age of five, especially in African and Asian countries with weak health systems, according to the World Health Organization. Polio can cripple a child for life.

The gap in global vaccination coverage has set up a "perfect storm", leaving more children vulnerable to infectious pathogens just as many countries ease COVID-19 restrictions, the WHO and U.N. Children's Fund said in an annual report.

Can we stretch existing Covid vaccines to inoculate more people? Is the world is using more vaccine than it needs to on each person immunized, depriving people in the queue of a chance to be protected? Helen Branswell STAT

With the global supply of Covid-19 vaccine still woefully inadequate, vaccine makers are scouring the pharmaceutical landscape for partners to ramp up manufacturing, and civil society groups are pressing politicians to waive intellectual property protections in a bid to spur still more production.