Largest catch-up initiative delivers over 100 million childhood vaccinations

Key points

• The Big Catch-Up, launched during World Immunization Week 2023, has delivered over 100 million vaccine doses to an estimated 18.3 million children across 36 countries Around 12.3 million were “zero-dose children” who had not previously received any vaccines and 15 million who had never received a measles vaccine.
• The initiative concluded in March 2026 and is on track to meet its target of catching up 21 million children – but agencies warn that many infants still miss out on lifesaving vaccines through routine immunization every year.
• The Big Catch-Up (BCU), a historic multi-year, multi-country effort to address vaccination declines driven largely by the COVID-19 pandemic, has reached an estimated 18.3 million children aged 1 to 5 across 36 countries with more than 100 million doses of life-saving vaccines, helping to narrow critical immunity gaps, announced Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), WHO, and UNICEF at the start of World Immunization Week....