P
AGE
T
WO
I
MMUNIZATION
RWANDA FIRST DEVELOPING NATIONTO OFFER PNEUMOCOCCAL VACCINE
Rwanda has become the first developingnation to launch a national immunizationcampaign against pneumococcal disease,the world’s leading preventable killer of children under five.
Working in partnership with the GAVIAlliance, Wyeth pharmaceutical company and other global partners, Rwanda’s Minis-try of Health aims to vaccinate nearly all of the country’s children younger than one by the end of 2009, and all Rwandan infantson a routine basis thereaer.Pneumococcal disease can cause po-tentially life-threatening illnesses such aspneumonia, meningitis and sepsis. World-wide, pneumococcal disease takes the livesof 1.6 million people every year, includingabout one million children under the ageof five. More than 90% of these deaths oc-cur in developing countries.Globally, 35 high and middle-incomecountries, including South Africa, current-ly provide routine childhood immuniza-tion against the disease. Rwanda is the firstlow-income country to do so.“is is a proud day for Rwanda and animportant milestone for the developingworld,” said Dr. Richard Sezibera, Rwanda’sMinister of Health, at the vaccine’s launchin Kigali in April. “We are committed tosaving the lives and improving the healthof our most precious national resource -our children. With the introduction of this vaccine, our goal of significantly reducingchild death in Rwanda will now be withinreach.”Wyeth will donate 2.5 million doses of Prevenar®, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, to Rwanda this year - enough toimmunize all Rwandan children underone. It has also committed to donating the vaccine to the Gambia, which is planningto launch its own immunization campaignlater this year.Both the Rwandan and the Gambiancampaigns are the first outcome of GAVI’s2007 launch of a unique financing mecha-nism known as the Advance Market Com-mitment (AMC). An AMC is a bindingcontract, typically offered by a governmentor other financial entity, used to guaranteea viable market for newly-developed vac-
P
HOTO
: GAVI/09/T
HOMAS
R
IPPE
Rwanda’s Health Minister, Dr. Richard Sezibera, delivers the first dose of pneumococcal vaccine at a clinic in Kigali.
cines or other medicines. By providing thatguarantee, GAVI partners hope to providean incentive to biopharmaceutical researchcompanies to develop vaccines and drugsfor neglected diseases that disproportion-ately impact low-income countries.e governments of Italy, the UnitedKingdom, Canada, Norway and Russia,and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundationlaunched the pilot AMC against pneumo-coccal disease with a collective $1.5 billioncommitment.e GAVI Alliance is a global partner-ship that includes governments of both in-dustrialized and developing countries, theWorld Health Organization (WHO), UNI-CEF, the World Bank, research and techni-cal health institutions, biopharmaceuticalresearch companies, civil organizationsand the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.Since 2000, GAVI has provided inno- vative financial support to accelerate theintroduction of basic vaccines in develop-ing countries. More than 200 million chil-dren in 72 countries have been immunizedagainst a number of common, life-threat-ening diseases, including diptheria, teta-nus, pertussis, hepatitis B, Haemophilusinfluenzae type b (Hib) and yellow fever.e WHO estimates that between 2000and 2008, GAVI-supported vaccines haveprevented 3.4 million deaths. e pneu-mococcal vaccine could save the lives of more than 440,000 children by 2015 andcontribute significantly to the attainmentof the UN Millennium Development Goalof reducing by two-thirds the mortality rate for children under five.
US H
EALTH
F
UNDING
PRESIDENT OBAMAASKS FOR $63B FORGLOBAL HEALTH
President Barack Obama has asked theUnited States Congress for $63 billion overthe next six years to fight global disease andprovide more aid for prenatal and postnatalcare, children’s health and fighting tropicaldiseases.
e budget request builds on last year’sfive-year, $48-billion reauthorization of thePresident’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).“We cannot fix every problem, but we havea responsibility to protect the health of ourpeople, while saving lives, reducing suffer-ing, and supporting the health and dignity of people everywhere,” President Obama said ina statement when his administration’s budgetwas released in May. “America can make a sig-nificant difference in meeting these challengesand that is why my administration is commit-ted to act.”Between 2004 and 2007, PEPFAR saved 1.2million lives in a dozen hard-hit African coun-tries, according to a study published in April inthe
Annals of Internal Medicine.
PEPFAR, thelargest single foreign aid program for healthin history, lowered the AIDS death rate on av-erage by 10.5%, author Dr. Eran Bendavid of Stanford University asserted.“Treatment has worked,” he said, addingthat the challenge now was to make preven-tion “a serious component of the program inthe next five years.”e study found that the program’s cost perlife saved was $2,450. To date, $18.8 billionhas been spent, mostly to treat people already infected with the HIV virus. Dr. Bendavidfound that the program was not successful inpreventing new infections or lowering overallprevalence of the AIDS virus.“Bringing down prevalence is importantand difficult,” Dr. Bendavid said. “You need toreduce the number of new people infected by at least as many as the number of people you’rekeeping alive.”e focus countries included in the study were Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ke-nya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda,South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.President Obama has committed to ramp-ing up prevention programs under PEPFARand has removed restrictions on giving fund-ing to family-planning clinics.
Leave a Comment