A lifesaving solution within reach

Source: The Daily Star

A solution exists to protect children from one of the deadliest threats they face -- diarrhoea and we can protect children with vaccines. The challenge is --vaccines are not yet available to Bangladeshi children. The challenge is that vaccines can be expensive for countries to introduce without assistance. The GAVI Alliance, which supports vaccine introduction, is ready to help by providing financial support to countries like ours. GAVI also works to reduce vaccination costs and was recently able to negotiate a price reduction on rotavirus vaccines making them more affordable.

Five-in-one vaccine to be launched in 2 states next month

Source: Times of India

The much awaited five-in-one vaccine will be rolled out from December. To begin with, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which have high routine immunization coverage rate, will use the pentavalent vaccine in their universal immunization drive.

Green light from GAVI for cervical cancer vaccine

Source: The Guardian

Great news that GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation), revelling in the windfall it received at its funding conference in London earlier this year ($4.3 billion, which is $600 million more than it asked for), has announced it will tentatively "open a window" for the funding of the cervical cancer vaccine.

Vaccines group to buy cervical cancer shot, as long as it's cheap and countries can deliver it

Source: Washington Post

A global vaccines group said Thursday it was working to buy shots to protect up to 2million women and girls in poor countries from cervical cancer.After a meeting in Bangladesh this week, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation said women and girls in nine developing countries might be immunized against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes cervical cancer, by 2015.

MDGs in jeopardy without vaccination: GAVI

Source: The Daily Star (Bangladesh)

Unless vaccination and immunisation programmes are properly implemented, two millennium development goals, of reducing child and maternal mortality, would remain unachieved in the country, said Jason Ray, head of Information Service, Global Alliance to Vaccination and Immunisation (GAVI), yesterday.

Ban lauds Bangladesh's progress on women's and children's health

Source: UN News

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today spotlighted the progress made by Bangladesh in advancing women's and children's health, lauding the South Asian nation for its efforts to end the tragedy of millions of needless deaths.

Pneumonia Vaccines Could Save Millions

Source: Voice of America

Health agencies are marking this year's World Pneumonia Day by touting the advancements made in the prevention and treatment of pneumonia, the biggest killer of children under age five.

Nicaragua Combats Pneumonia in Country's Young Via New Vaccine

Source: PBS

Each year, pneumonia kills more children around the world than malaria, measles and HIV combined. Ray Suarez reports from Nicaragua on efforts to combat the lung infection, which is the leading killer of children under the age of five.

New studies show progress, value in vaccination against deadly pneumonia

Source: MedicalXpress

In a paper published in the journal International Health, the authors estimate that two pneumococcal vaccines being introduced in the world's poorest countrieswith support from the GAVI Alliance could save the lives of three to four million children over the next 10 years. A separate report released by the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins University shows that progress in rolling out interventions to control pneumonia has been uneven, with the greatest recent progress in access to vaccines but lingering lack of access to medical care and antibiotics in the countries where children are most vulnerable to pneumonia.

Global Vaccine Campaign for Top Baby Killer 'Unprecedented'

Source: PBS

The number one killer of young children around the world isn't malaria, measles or HIV. It's pneumonia, and each year more children die from the lung infection than from those three, much higher-profile diseases combined.

Killing pneumonia, the forgotten pandemic

Source: UNICEF

Globally, but especially in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, pneumonia is the leading killer of children under the age of five - more than AIDS, measles and malaria combined. Fifteen countries account for three quarters of childhood pneumonia cases worldwide, of which Bangladesh is one with the northern districts of the country especially vulnerable.

Malaria vaccine hope after blood entry route discovered

Source: BBC

The route all strains of the most deadly malaria parasite use to enter red blood cells has been identified by researchers at the Sanger Institute in Cambridge.

Bill Gates’s plan to assist the world’s poor

Source: Washington Post

Fifty years ago, almost 20 million children under the age of 5 died every year. In 2010, the figure was down to 7.6 million. This 60 percent decline in childhood deaths — reflecting advances in agriculture, education, health and sanitation — is compelling evidence of the increasing justice in our world.

With Vaccines, Bill Gates Changes The World Again

Source: Forbes

The Republic of Chad, a landlocked desert dictatorship once described by FORBES as the planet’s most corrupt, is a strange place to find Bill Gates. Yet there he was in September, beside Chad’s Qaddafi-trained president, General Idriss Deby. “He and I walked around giving polio drops to a bunch of kids,” recalls Gates. “I shared in confidence with him some views of how he might be even more effective in the way he manages his campaign.”