…The Alliance is on track to immunise 300 million children between 2021 and 2025 and prevent 7-8 million deaths during this period, generating an additional US$80-100 billion economic benefits
…This comes as global leaders gather in Madrid for the Global Vaccine Impact Conference, an opportunity to learn from the COVAX response to COVID-19 and global health threats to continue building a pandemic prevention, preparedness and response infrastructure
TUE, JUNE 13 2023-theGBJournal | Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has helped to vaccinate over one billion children with routine vaccines since it was established in 2000 – alongside enabling billions of critical vaccinations during campaigns, emergencies and pandemics – and is on course to achieve a majority of its 2025 strategic objectives.
In total, Gavi has enabled roughly 6 billion vaccinations around the world, protecting children and adults against 19 infectious diseases.
These new figures were unveiled at the Global Vaccine Impact Conference, co-hosted by the Spanish Government, which kicked off in Madrid today and saw the publication of a new report, Raising Generation ImmUnity.
Every year, Gavi provides vaccines to countries to protect half the world’s children and despite the huge strain placed on countries’ health systems by the COVID-19 pandemic, the report finds that it remains on or ahead of schedule in eight of 11 key ambitious commitments it made for the period 2021-2025 (Progress covering two of the five years of the 2021-2025 period).
These include efforts to immunise a further 300 million children, prevent between seven and eight million future deaths and unlock US$80-US$100 billion in economic benefits.
Commitments where Gavi’s ambitious goals require additional effort during the current five-year period are in securing further cost savings from manufacturers, increasing countries’ own financial contribution and in helping countries transition away from Gavi support.
These encouraging signs that resilient health systems in the 57 Gavi-implementing countries are having some success in bouncing back following the pandemic appear to be borne out by preliminary data demonstrating a recovery of routine immunisation coverage in 2022. Based on a preliminary analysis of country administrative data shared with Gavi, coverage across Gavi-implementing countries increased by approximately three percentage points in 2022. This contrasts with a 5% point drop between 2020 and 2021 and will help coverage levels return closer to their historical baseline. Gavi’s goal is to continue that catch-up while also reaching the millions of “zero dose” children still missing out on life-saving vaccinations.
Commenting these figures, Prof José Manuel Barroso, Gavi Board Chair, said: “For over twenty years, Gavi’s operating model has been a solution to the world’s immunisation challenges and at no time was this more the case than in recent years, when it has helped countries not only to weather the worst public health crisis in a century, but protect more and more people from deadly, preventable diseases.”
In addition to its work on essential childhood vaccines, Gavi manages stockpiles of vaccines against Cholera, Yellow Fever, meningococcal disease and Ebola, giving it a crucial role in outbreak response. Gavi also co-leads COVAX, the global initiative for COVID-19 vaccine equity, alongside the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). COVAX has shipped almost 2 billion doses of vaccines – and as the primary source of COVID-19 vaccines for lower-income economies, prevented 2.7 million deaths across 92 lower-income countries. This role in health crisis response gives Gavi vital insights into future efforts on pandemic prevention and preparedness.
“COVID-19 proved beyond a doubt the value of immunisation. We built our response on top of a tried-and-tested immunisation system. With Gavi support, we can strengthen this platform to ensure our health system can withstand future outbreaks”, said H.E. Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Minister of Health of Indonesia.
“In my country, where climate-change and displacement are making it harder, not easier, to deliver health services – vaccines are an essential way to manage outbreaks and save lives,” said Dr Abdelmadjid Abderahim, Minister of Public Health and Prevention, Chad.
“It is an evolutionary certainty that outbreaks of infectious diseases will only increase due to climate change and population growth. That is why, in addition to protecting a whole generation of young people against preventable diseases, our Alliance has delivered billions more doses of vaccines to help countries fight outbreaks and pandemics. Despite the increasing complexity of the world in which we operate, Gavi is having more impact than ever before, responding to a growing list of global health challenges,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi.
“Millions of children missed out on essential vaccines in the last three years. Catching up these children is a priority this year, as we rebuild our health systems post-pandemic. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, are a critical part of the push to catch up, recover and strengthen immunization systems so each child can thrive,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Reaching 1 billion children with lifesaving vaccines is an impressive milestone and a testament to what we can achieve for children when we work together. Yet the job is far from done. As health systems and the immunization services they provide continue to recover from the impact of the pandemic, it’s critical that we continue our joint efforts to ensure that children, everywhere, have access to routine childhood vaccinations. It offers children the best shot at living healthy and happy lives,” said Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF.
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