The number of Pacific children receiving vaccines has increased, but great challenges remain.
That's according to the United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, who says most of the region's countries have reached, or are close to reaching, a target of having 90 per cent of children immunised against serious illnesses.
UNICEF says an estimated 1700 children in the Pacific died in 2016 because of vaccine-prevantable illnesses like diarrhoea or pneumonia.
The agency's Cate Heinrich told Jamie Tahana about the challenges that lie ahead.
Taratiteiti Kirition holding her 1-year-old daughter Pepeeti while a nurse gives her an immunisation shot at a Kiribati clinic Photo: UNICEF
