The United Nations Foundation reported today that one billion children in more than 60 developing countries have been immunized against measles since 2001 — the start of the Measles Initiative.
In 1980, before widespread vaccination, measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year. With accelerated immunization activities spearheaded by governments and the Measles Initiative, global measles mortality has decreased by an impressive 78 percent worldwide from 733,000 deaths in 2000 to 164,000 in 2008. Reductions in measles-related deaths during that same time period accounts for nearly a quarter (24 percent) of the overall decrease in childhood mortality, representing significant progress toward Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG4).
Filed under: Commentary on news & events, Public health | Tagged: global health, immunization, Millenium Development Goals, United Nations, vaccine | Leave a Comment »
The fight against TB: Bayer donates drugs to WHO program
According to a report from PharmaTimes, Bayer will donate 620,000 tablets of its antibiotic moxifloxacin in order to help tackle multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.
The drugs will be provided to the World Health Organization for use in its Stop Tuberculosis Partnership, with the WHO expected to provide the antibiotics to China’s national tuberculosis programme.
Filed under: Asia, Commentary on news & events, Public health, World Health Organization | Tagged: access to medicines, China, tuberculosis, World Health Organization | Leave a Comment »