Air, Freight News

Kids miss out on vital vaccines in airfreight capacity crunch

[ May 1, 2020   //   Chris ]

The United Nations Unicef children’s agency is calling for governments, the private sector, the airline industry and others to free up airfreight space at an affordable cost so that life-saving vaccines can be flown to where they are needed. It warns that millions of children risk missing out on life-saving vaccines due to a massive backlog of shipments due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Unicef says that vaccinations for many preventable diseases like measles, polio and tetanus are being disrupted by the shortage of airfreight capacity.

It says that there has been a dramatic decline in commercial flights and those that the costs of securing those that are available are exorbitant , especially for countries with limited resources.

It said: “Unicef is appealing to governments, the private sector, the airline industry, and others to free up freight space at an affordable cost for these life-saving vaccines.”

Tags: UNICEF