Japan's envoy to the United Nations joined forces with the head of UNICEF on Friday to push the world to make sure as many children as possible are vaccinated against potentially fatal diseases amid a rise in misinformation about immunization programs.
"Ensuring and scaling up immunization coverage is one of the cornerstones of primary health care and an important entry point for UHC (universal health coverage)," Ambassador Koro Bessho said at a panel discussion, calling it "a key priority of Japan's own UHC system as well as its foreign assistance."
He made the remarks against the backdrop of concerns about the resurgence of diseases such as measles in nations where it had been eliminated. The total number of cases worldwide has tripled over the last year, according to a new UNICEF report, where there were 168,000 cases reported in May this year, compared to 51,000 cases the year before.