$4.3 billion needed to fund vaccines for world’s poor

$4.3 billion is needed if the GAVI Alliance is to meet its goal of supplying life-saving immunizations to millions of children in poor countries by 2015.  In 2000, world leaders from 189 countries signed up to the Millennium Development Goals to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015.

GAVI, which is supported by the World Health Organization, the World Bank, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and vaccine makers, says it has 40 percent of the $7 billion it needs between now and 2015 to help meet that goal.

“With $7 billion, (GAVI) will be able to fully roll out pentavalent vaccine and introduce new vaccines against pneumococcal disease and rotavirus diarrhea in over 40 countries,” it said in a statement. “These last two vaccines alone can save one million children by 2015.”

The scale of GAVI’s buying and distribution power allows it to secure much lower prices for vaccines, which are then supplied to poor nations at a fraction of their cost.

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