Agreement to Provide Pneumonia Vaccine to Poor Children Expected to Save Millions of Lives

VOA News 23/03/2010

The GAVI Alliance and two leading pharmaceutical companies have signed an agreement to provide low-cost life-saving vaccines to millions of the world's poorest children. Each year, the World Health Organization reports an estimated two million children under age five die of pneumonia. This disease is responsible for about one-quarter of all child deaths.

GAVI Alliance CEO Julian Lob-Levyt says pneumonia kills more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. "And more than 90 percent of those deaths occur in developing countries. So, today, I am very proud to announce that GAVI is signing a landmark agreement with GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) and Pfizer to provide long-term supplies of a revolutionary new vaccine against this major killer of children," she said.

The Geneva-based public-private alliance, and GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer say supplies of the new vaccine to Africa and other developing countries will start early this year at a fraction of the price charged in industrialized countries.

Lob-Levyt says cost is the major reason why the vaccine has been unavailable to children in the poorest countries.

Breakthrough for Australian Scientists Working on Malaria Vaccine

VOA News 20/01/2010

Researchers in Australia say a group of proteins produced in the human immune system - when infected with malaria - could help lead to the creation of a malaria vaccine. Scientists at Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute made the breakthrough.

For decades, scientists around the world have hunted for a vaccine against malaria, which claims one million lives annually.

The mosquito-borne disease kills a child every 30 seconds, with communities in Africa most at risk.

Malaria is caused by a complex parasite that makes it hard to target with a vaccine.

Researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne say the disease has evolved to thwart the body's natural defenses.

Australian scientists at the institute, however, are optimistic that a vaccine can be created because people living in malaria hotspots eventually build up some immunity against the disease.