By Sravya Dontharaju and Dawson Chang

Around the world today, over 14 million children have never received a vaccine. Over half of these children live in ten countries, mostly in Africa or the Middle East, that are currently engaged in war. The UN is currently off track in meeting its goal to halve the number of unvaccinated children by 2030. In order to better mitigate the spread of global diseases and facilitate a greater number of vaccinations, we need to take a deeper look at these war-torn regions and find solutions to mitigate the spread of disease.

Recently, several conflicts in the Middle East have significantly contributed to the spread of disease in the region. This past August, the World Health Organization confirmed the first case of Polio in Palestine in the last 25 years. Researchers from Human Rights Watch say that, due to the war in Gaza, polio vaccinations have dropped from 99 percent in 2022 to under 90 percent in 2024. Damage caused by the war to major water and waste management infrastructure has worsened the polio outbreak. Similarly, in Yemen, which has been embroiled in some state of conflict since the outbreak of the Yemeni Civil War in 2014, over 580,000 children have never received any vaccines. This represents an increase of over 150,000 from three years ago.

Many African countries as well, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, and Sudan, have been affected by diseases such as the sleeping sickness, ebola, and monkeypox. According to the National Library of Medicine, insurgency and general instability are the main reasons for the lack of disease intervention or prevention. UNICEF’s Sudan representative states that, “national vaccination coverage has…rates averaging 30 percent in active conflict areas and as low as eight percent in South Darfur.” According to the International Rescue Committee, the Sudanese civil war has left 25.6 million people in need of healthcare which are collapsing. While there has been a coordinated effort to send aid to countries in need, these crucial resources are often intercepted by insurgents and rebel groups before they make it to the hands that need them most.

Solutions to mitigating this spread of disease need to address the collapse of healthcare infrastructure. According to the National Library of Medicine, negotiations are central to access people in conflict ridden areas. For example, Somalia’s non-state and state actors have allowed aid groups to vaccinate in conflict zones after mediation. Negotiations for temporary ceasefires have also been effective in promoting vaccination in the case of Lebanon—in 1987, several four-day ceasefires were negotiated to prevent the spread of measles. There are certain policies or actions states can take to mitigate the spread of disease, like setting up vaccination checkposts around conflict zones, where civilians would only be able to move in and out of areas if they have been vaccinated. Mass displacement heightens disease risks, but Nigeria addressed this by setting up border vaccine stations for life-saving treatments. Disease spread can be mitigated through increasing access to vaccines and creating temporary infrastructure for distribution of that life-saving medication.

This piece is a reproduction from its original issue in Hemispheres Volume 48 Issue 1. Read more here.