Central African Republic news and features

Two new vaccines that help protect against cervical cancer, measles and rubella spearhead the GAVI Alliance’s commitment to improving the health of girls and women.

The twofold objective of Dr Berkley’s visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo was to gain a better understanding of what drives increases in immunisation coverage in a large fragile country and to advise on the scaling-up of pneumococcal vaccines. Meetings with various partners, including government ministers, UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and DR Congo’s vibrant civil society allowed vigorous discussion of how best to provide financial sustainability for immunisation.

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

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.

The Governments of Central African Republic, Benin and Cameroon will introduce vaccines in the coming weeks to combat pneumonia, one of the biggest killers of children worldwide.

HRH Princess Cristina, Director of the International Area of the "la Caixa" Foundation, and Mary Robinson, Chair of the GAVI Alliance Board, ex-President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, renewed this morning at Caixa Forum Madrid the commitment of "la Caixa" to the eradication of child mortality with the donation to GAVI of 3 million euros.

Representatives from major health and humanitarian relief organizations are coming together to coordinate outreach efforts for the first-ever World Pneumonia Day on November 2, 2009.

Immunization at the global level has progressed very well during the past 25 years, but further increases in coverage would save the lives of millions more who do not yet benefit from this protection, said a group of immunization partners at the World Vaccine Congress in Lyon, France.