Largest Catch-Up Initiative Delivers Over 100 Million Childhood Vaccinations

The Big Catch-Up (BCU), a multi-year initiative launched in 2023 by Gavi, WHO, and UNICEF, delivered over 100 million vaccine doses to an estimated 18.3 million children aged 1–5 across 36 countries, with 12.3 million of those children classified as zero-dose.

Notably, 15 million had never received a measles vaccine, and 23 million doses of inactivated polio vaccine were administered. Twelve countries exceeded 60% coverage of previously unvaccinated children under five.

Despite this progress, 14.3 million infants globally still missed routine vaccination in 2024, and measles cases reached approximately 11 million that year — underscoring that catch-up campaigns must be paired with sustained investment in routine immunization infrastructure. Read more from WHO here.