GAVI and VaccinesVaccinesVaccines are an ounce of prevention for a pound of cure and are widely regarded as “best buys” in global health because of their low cost and high returns. Vaccines are responsible for some of the most important achievements in public health. For example, after a concerted global vaccination effort, smallpox, which had afflicted human society since ancient Egypt, was eradicated in 1979. Polio was a devastating cause of death and disability worldwide but is now endemic in just four countries thanks to eradication efforts. Vaccination against measles has produced rapid improvements in children's health, reducing the number of cases from 733,000 in 2000 to 164,000 in 2008. In Africa, there was a 92 percent reduction in measles deaths in the last decade. Global health is characterized by extreme inequity, particularly in the health of young children. Basic health services that we take for granted are widely unavailable in the developing world, and medical innovations that are rapidly introduced in wealthy countries may not reach poor countries for decades, if at all. The resulting disparities are striking: Of the 8.8 million children who die each year before their fifth birthday, nearly all of them live in poor countries and succumb to preventable or treatable illness. Two of the five leading causes of these unnecessary deaths are diarrhea and pneumonia. Recent scientific innovations have led to new vaccines to inoculate against the leading cause of diarrhea (rotavirus) and the leading causes of childhood pneumonia. Together with the GAVI Alliance, we can end unnecessary deaths for millions of children by ramping up vaccination for these diseases. GAVIThe GAVI Alliance has a different vision: a world in which new, state-of-the-art, life-saving vaccines are made available to children who need them regardless of where they're born. 2010 provided a glimpse of that possibility when a vaccine to prevent the worst forms of pneumonia was administered for the first time in Nicaragua as part of a national immunization campaign. But, what is truly remarkable about this launch is that the pneumococcal vaccine was introduced in Nicaragua in the same year it was first introduced in the United States, providing equal opportunity for life-saving treatment to both high-income and low-income countries. With the support of donors, GAVI plans to support the rollout of this vaccine to prevent pneumonia in six additional low-income countries in 2011, with the hope of reaching over 40 countries by 2015. But these new opportunities require new resources. The funding provided by the U.S. for vaccines is modest, but makes a tremendous impact in terms of lives saved and goodwill earned. How GAVI WorksThe GAVI Alliance is a unique public-private partnership dedicated to protecting children from vaccine-preventable diseases. GAVI is a true partnership, with representation on its governing board from developing and donor governments (including the U.S), non-governmental organizations, multilateral health organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, philanthropic foundations, and private sector vaccine manufacturers. GAVI is particularly focused on rapidly increasing access to new vaccines as they become available. An important part of GAVI's approach is to shape the vaccine market. GAVI brings together low-income countries' demand to create a large market and demand for vaccines, which both assures manufacturers that there will be a reliable demand for vaccines and uses the market’s size and purchasing volume to help drive down costs for poor countries. GAVI also has a strict co-financing policy that requires the developing countries that receive assistance to contribute to the cost of the vaccines from their own budgets. This co-financing policy helps ensure the countries are full partners and build long-term political and financial support for the program within the country. Since its founding in 2000, GAVI has supported the immunization of nearly 300 million children. These efforts are estimated to have prevented five million deaths. Other resources from GAVI AllianceVideo highlighting the power of the rotavirus vaccine Video on success of rotavirus vaccine in Nicaragua |