Burundi news and features

Burundi is strengthening its efforts to fight preventable diseases by introducing the second dose of measles vaccine into its national routine immunisation programme.

Partners Forum 2012 - Session summary

Rotavirus vaccines will protect children from severe and deadly diarrhoea.

Advances lauded as Malawi becomes next developing country to introduce pneumococcal vaccine on Saturday - World Pneumonia Day.

Sudan's introduction of rotavirus vaccine earlier this year signalled the start of a wave of African countries ready to counter the world's leading cause of diarrhoeal deaths with GAVI support. In September, the Alliance approved funding for 12 more African countries to introduce the rotavirus vaccine.

Listen to GAVI CEO, Seth Berkley, comment on the roll out of this week's pneumococcal vaccine in Burundi, and an article in the New York Times (19 September 2011) commenting on WHO's cost effective recommendations on combating NCDs.

The Republic of Burundi will next week accelerate its fight against pneumonia, the world's biggest killer of children under five, when it becomes the tenth African country to introduce new pneumococcal vaccines.

Twenty seven countries contribute to vaccine costs through the GAVI Alliance; up from just six in 2007.

Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world. But, in spite of years of civil unrest and poor infrastructure, its commitment to immunisation has been consistently high. Burundi’s DTP3 immunisation coverage increased from 54 per cent in 2001 to 93 per cent in 2006, according to World Health Organization (WHO) figures.

The GAVI Alliance is announcing today that the European Commission is committing €10 million in new financing to accelerate access to new and underused vaccines in three low-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa: Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.