2006

AMP release faced with very high risks of yellow fever epidemics in eight Central and Western African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Senegal and Togo), the GAVI Alliance partners are launching a strategy and plan to fight the disease.

The GAVI Alliance announced today that the Government of Ireland is to make its largest ever financial contribution to support child immunisation and health systems strengthening in the world’s poorest nations.

PATH RVP A historic decision announced today will bring new vaccines to the developing world with unprecedented speed. The GAVI Alliance Board of Directors approved plans to finance the purchase of rotavirus vaccines to curb childhood deaths from severe diarrheal disease in the world’s poorest countries. The case for this investment was made by the PATH Rotavirus Vaccine Program (RVP), jointly with its partners, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.

The GAVI Alliance announced today it will support the introduction of vaccines against two diseases that kill an estimated 1.5 million children every year in the world’s poorest regions, opening a new era in efforts to cut the time it takes to deliver safe and effective new vaccines to poor nations.

The GAVI Alliance and GAVI Fund Boards are meeting in Berlin to announce far-reaching strategies geared toward the strengthening of health systems in developing countries and the introduction of new vaccines against major killer diseases responsible for the deaths of more than 1.5 million children each year, most of them in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America.

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.

Efforts to immunise children received a large boost as the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm) issued its inaugural bonds today. Proceeds from the bonds will fund health and immunisation programmes through the GAVI Alliance (GAVI) in 70 of the world's poorest countries.

The Minister for Development Cooperation of the Netherlands, Ms. Agnes van Ardenne, announced today that the Government of the Netherlands is significantly increasing its contribution to the GAVI Alliance. The GAVI Alliance was launched in 2000 to address inequities in access to immunisation and health in the world’s poorest countries. One of the first donor nations to join the Alliance, the Netherlands committed € 70 million to GAVI in its first 5 years. The Dutch government is now pledging nearly € 100 million over the next 4 years for global vaccination and programmes to strengthen health systems through GAVI.

A new health survey from Cambodia reveals a dramatic increase in the number of children fully vaccinated each year. Today, 67% of all children are fully immunised, up from 39% just five years ago. Reforms in the national immunisation program and the broader health sector enabled Cambodia to cut its infant mortality rate by nearly half.

WHO/PAHO release - Health ministers from the Americas at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Directing Council were briefed today on the Disease Control Priorities project, which outlines the best health investments to reduce the burden of disease in developing countries.

The Government of Nicaragua and Merck & Co., Inc. today announced their plans to conduct a demonstration rotavirus vaccine program in Nicaragua. This vaccine’s introduction in a developing country right on the heels of its approval in the developed world is a major milestone for children’s health.

This week, Australia becomes the 16th public donor (including the European Commission) contributing to GAVI’s life saving mission of preventing the spread of deadly diseases in the world’s poorest countries. As it launches a new overseas aid health policy, the Australian Government is committing to a US$ 20 million contribution to the GAVI Alliance over the next 4 years.

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) today published research showing that, three years after introduction, routine vaccination of infants in Kenya against H. influenzae Type b (Hib) significantly reduced invasive Hib disease rates by 88%.

Since 2002, China has immunised 11.1 million children in the country’s poorest and most remote western and central provinces against hepatitis B, reducing their risk of developing a deadly and common liver cancer, according to an announcement made today by the Chinese government and the GAVI Alliance.

Her Royal Highness the Infanta Doña Cristina and Health Minister Elena Salgado applaud achievements of global immunisation programs and Spain’s continued commitment to these efforts.

Her Royal Highness the Infanta Doña Cristina will preside the opening ceremony of the GAVI Fund Board Meeting, taking place in the Palacio Santa Cruz. The opening ceremony on Monday 10 July, followed by a reception, will highlight the new collaboration between the government of Spain and GAVI, in line with its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, and especially the reduction of child mortality in the poorest countries in the world.

This morning Friday 7 July Spain’s Council of Ministers approved 190 million € contribution to IFFIm (International Finance Facility for Immunisation) over 20 years.

In advance of the G8 summit, the leaders of four major organizations - the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the GAVI Alliance - welcome the G8's focus on infectious diseases and urge the G8 leaders to continue their commitments to improving the health and lives of people in the world's poorest countries.

The Government of South Africa announced today that it will contribute US$20 million over 20 years to the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm).

Today Denmark, through its Minister for Development Cooperation, Ms. Ulla Tørnæs, announced it will commit DKK 25 million (US$4million) for 2006 to global immunisation programs through the GAVI Alliance and its partners.

Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan visited the Kalawati Saran Children’s Hospital today to meet with patients and hospital workers to celebrate the health system advances in India in recent years and draw attention to the country’s increased efforts to bolster nationwide immunization coverage.

The President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, announced today that Brazil will contribute US$20 million over 20 years to the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm).

GAVI congratulates France and the UK for their years of work invested in the search for creative new ways to pay for the measures that will be needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

The International Finance Facility for Immunization (IFFIm), the new multinational fund that will leverage long-term commitments from rich governments to raise urgently needed financing for health programmes in poor countries, is close to implementation, the GAVI Alliance announced today.