Why Is the World's Most Successful Child Health Intervention Going Begging?

Vaccines have saved the lives of millions of children around the world, and have the potential to save millions more in the future as newer vaccines are developed and introduced. Vaccines have resulted in global eradication of smallpox, we are on the brink of attaining global eradication of polio, and measles deaths have decreased by 78 percent since 2000. Newly developed vaccines will prevent hundreds of thousands of child deaths each year from rotavirus diarrhea and pneumococcal pneumonia when countries can gain access to these vaccines. Immunization is one of the most cost-effective investments in child health. Yet in 2009 in low-income countries, two out of five deaths in children under five-years old were due to pneumonia or diarrhea. New vaccines can prevent a large proportion of these deaths but the global community has not committed the resources necessary to bring the full range of vaccines to all children. Polio eradication is not yet assured, and we are at great risk of losing the dramatic progress made against measles as donor funding has dropped precipitously despite rapid movement toward elimination. The reduction in measles deaths alone accounts for nearly 25 percent of the overall reduction in child deaths since 1990. Achieving Millennium Development Goal 4 -- to reduce under-five child mortality by two-thirds by 2015 -- will not be possible without additional support for immunization. It would be a crime if this goal were missed simply for lack of adequate financial support.

Society has long recognized the value of vaccines. Since 1974, the World Health Organization (WHO) has coordinated a global Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI). Major support came from bilateral development agencies and UNICEF negotiated a significantly reduced price for vaccines in developing countries. However, vaccines don't give themselves. It takes organized structures and trained personnel to deliver vaccines safely to those who need them. In 2008, more than twenty-two million infants were missed by routine immunization services and remain unprotected.

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