The 64th World Health Assembly is this week in Geneva, Bill Gates in a keynote address called on government leaders to increase their investments in vaccines and to hold themselves accountable for extending the benefits of vaccines to every child.
In his delivery, he stated:
“Vaccines are inexpensive, they are easy to deliver, and they are proven to protect children from disease. The best immunization systems work because leaders hold themselves accountable for results. Leaders diagnose weaknesses, innovate to address them, and spread the best ideas.”
Gates laid out his vision for the impact that broadening access to vaccines can have on the world. Recognizing that leadership is essential to achieving his vision, Gates announced that starting in 2012, his foundation would bestow an award on an individual or organization that has made a uniquely innovative contribution to the Decade of Vaccines. The innovation could be in the science, the delivery, or the financing of vaccines.
Gates continued:
“Strong immunization systems will put an end to polio and help us reach all children with five to six new vaccines. We can save four million lives by 2015, and 10 million lives by 2020. I believe we have the opportunity to make a new future in which global health is the cornerstone of global prosperity.”
Gates in particular cited leaders in India and Nigeria who are responsible for increasing immunization rates in their states, and praised the success of the new Meningitis A vaccine that was rolled out in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger last December, to emphasize the importance of commitments to immunization.
Gates also called on pharmaceutical manufacturers to commit to making sure vaccines are affordable for poor countries. Simply, pharmaceutical companies to make sure vaccines are affordable for poor countries. Specifically, they must make a commitment to affordable pricing. Gates said he was confident that the combined price of the pentavalent, pneumococcus, and rotavirus vaccines can be cut in half by 2015.
In addition Gates said that all 193 WHO member states need to make vaccines a central focus of their health systems. He said they must pledge to meet vaccine coverage targets of 90% at the country level with no district below 80%, and ensure that all children have access to existing vaccines and to new ones as they become available.
In the convention’s opening statement, Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization touched on one such vaccine that The Gates Foundation assisted with in Africa late 2010:
“Epidemic meningitis is not the biggest killer in Africa, but it is among the most greatly feared of all diseases. The people of Africa deserve better, and in December of last year they got it: a powerful new vaccine that can prevent epidemics in Africa’s notorious meningitis belt. In a project coordinated by WHO and PATH, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the vaccine was developed, in record time, and at about one-tenth of the cost usually needed to bring a product through development to the market. This offers evidence of a welcome new trend. Africa is the first to receive the best technology that the world, working together, can offer. Remember the people infected with a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis or co-infected with HIV who had to wait up to three months for a reliable diagnosis.”
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Written by Sy Kraft