Study: Tens of millions of poor children lack vaccines (Roundup)

Oct 21, 2009, 16:36 GMT

Geneva/Washington - Some 20 per cent of children born each year, mostly in the poorest parts of the globe, remain without life- saving inoculations, a new international study released Wednesday showed.

Still, a record 106 million infants were immunized in 2008, and with campaigns constantly being rolled out by governments and charities, the industry has received a massive boost.

The main reason for the lack of vaccines for those roughly 24 million unprotected children was a lack of funds, the report by the World Health Organization, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank said.

'At least an additional 1 billion dollars per year will be needed to ensure that new and existing vaccines will be delivered to all children in the 72 poorest countries,' the agencies said in the report, The State of World's Vaccines and Immunizations.

As attention has shifted in the developed world to the H1N1, or swine flu, pandemic, it is important for policymakers not to lose sight of the larger public health benefit of vaccination against a wide range of diseases, said Dr Jon Kim Andrus, deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization.

'All the efforts going into addressing the pandemic are valid and justifiable,' he told reporters in Washington at the report's release. 'But at the same time we balance that with other global health priorities.'

Some 82 per cent of the world's children receive vaccinations, up from 72 per cent in 1990 and just 20 per cent in 1980, said Saad Houry, the deputy executive director of the UN children's fund, UNICEF.

Some 120 vaccines are now available against deadly diseases and more organizations are involved in creating and distributing the doses, including the cash-rich Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Another 80 vaccines were in late-stage clinical testing, with 30 of those for illnesses for which there are currently no vaccines, Daisy Mafubelu of the WHO told reporters in Washington.

The global vaccine market has tripled over the last eight years, reaching more than 17 billion dollars in revenue, the report said, adding that it was 'one of the fastest growing sectors of industry.'

The cost of giving the doses has also risen rapidly over the last three decades in the developing world. In the 1980s, countries spent an average of 3.50-5.00 dollars per live birth on vaccines. By next year, the cost will be 18 dollars and is eventually expected to hit 30 dollars per live birth.

Much of the increased cost is due to an increase in the number of vaccines available, with the cost per shot actually falling, UNICEF's Houry said.

Measles deaths fell by 74 per cent between 2000 and 2007, the report showed, giving credit to vaccinations. Polio has been eradicated in all but four countries.

More generally, vaccines are believed to save 2.5 million lives each year, the report said, and if the left-out children received doses, another 2 million could be spared early death.

The number of annual child deaths from preventable disease has dropped below 10 million, for the first time since documentation began, in part due to vaccinations, but also as access to clean water and better health services increased.

The UN agencies and the World Bank warned in the report that progress made could be reversed if the achievements of the last decade were not kept up in a sustainable manner over time. They also noted that vaccines had not yet been invented for malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, which are estimated to kill 4 million people a year.