13.5 million zero-dose children put UAE providers on measles alert, WHO and UNICEF say

WHO and UNICEF said 13.5 million children received no vaccine in their first year in 2025, making missed-dose detection a UAE operational risk for paediatric intake, school health and travel medicine.

For UAE hospital operators, clinic groups and school health providers, the immediate question is whether registration, travel medicine, labour accommodation screening and family medicine workflows can find incomplete records before a measles or pertussis exposure becomes a facility incident. In Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the Northern Emirates, those workflows sit under Dubai Health Authority (DHA), Department of Health Abu Dhabi (DOH) and Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) requirements.

Global coverage is still below 2019

The WHO-UNICEF Estimates of National Immunization Coverage found that 90% of infants, nearly 116 million children, received at least one dose of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine in 2025. Full three-dose DTP coverage reached 85%, or 110 million children.

WHO and UNICEF said both DTP indicators rose by one percentage point from 2024, but remained one point below 2019. The completion gap is the operational warning: 7.3 million infants received a first DTP dose but dropped out before their first measles dose.

• 84% of children received a first measles dose in 2025.
• 77% received a second measles dose in 2025.
• 95% coverage is the WHO threshold for preventing measles outbreaks.
• 57 countries reported large or disruptive measles outbreaks in 2025.

"Governments and health workers have helped global vaccination rates bounce back after dropping significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. But millions of vulnerable children are still being left unprotected due to conflict, displacement, and poverty."
Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director

UAE providers need record-level controls

The UAE has high routine immunisation expectations, but its providers serve children from countries with uneven vaccine records, conflict exposure or disrupted primary care. That makes DHA, DOH and MOHAP compliance a front-desk, EHR and infection-control issue, rather than a policy issue held outside the clinic.

Medical directors should use the 57-country measles outbreak figure as a trigger to audit triage and isolation workflows in 2026. A child with fever and rash after travel needs fast isolation, vaccination history review and regulator notification under local requirements. Pertussis risk needs the same attention in infants, where a missed 3-dose DTP course changes contact management.

COOs and CIOs should look first at documentation. Providers need reliable capture of overseas vaccine certificates, manual records, translated schedules and incomplete EHR fields. CFOs should expect the cost of gaps to show up as staff time, infection-control capacity, vaccine inventory and service disruption after an exposure.

Countries to watch

WHO and UNICEF said more than half of zero-dose children live in fragile, conflict-affected or vulnerable settings, although those settings account for about one-third of the world's child population. Syria lost 6 percentage points on first-dose DTP coverage and 12 points on first-dose measles coverage in 2025. Sudan recorded the largest country gain, with first-dose DTP coverage up 35 percentage points and first-dose measles coverage up 22 points.

The same WHO-UNICEF data show pressure in richer markets that send patients, workers and families to the UAE. South Africa's first-dose DTP coverage has fallen 20 percentage points since 2019. Bosnia and Herzegovina saw a 23-point fall in first-dose measles coverage in 2025 after a strong increase in 2024.

The next risk is data quality. WHO and UNICEF said only 18 national immunisation surveys were undertaken and submitted in this round, down from 50 in 2024 and an annual average of 33 between 2015 and 2019. UAE operators should review paediatric catch-up protocols before the next school cycle and winter travel period, with one number in mind: 95% measles coverage is the prevention threshold cited by WHO.