GAVI in the news
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| 01 July 2011 | Seth Berkley on the Future of Vaccines and Global Health Council on Foreign Relations - From IAVI to GAVI: A Conversation with Seth Berkley on the Future of Vaccines and Global Health. Read more |
| 20 June 2011 | How does Africa tackle cervical cancer? The Guardian - Cancer kills more people worldwide that AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria together - but most of Africa doesn't even have a word for it. So where should Africa's medical profession start in the bid to increase screening? Read more |
| 19 June 2011 | Routine clinics key to babies’ survival The East African | Kevin Rudd - While the task of delivering routine child immunisation equitably across the globe is easier to say than do, it is within our grasp. However, over the past 10 years, GAVI, working with stakeholders such as governments and health services, private philanthropists, civil society and multilateral organisations, pharmaceutical suppliers and financiers has started making inroads Read more |
| 15 June 2011 | Rwand Government Welcomes U.S.$4.3 Billion Vaccination Pledge allafrica.com - The Minister of Health, Dr. Agnes Binagwaho has welcomed the recent commitment by donors to allocate US$ 4.3 billion to immunisation. "Rwanda is a very close partner of GAVI Alliance; we have been benefiting from several immunisation packages from the Alliance. That is why we highly appreciate the commitment made by the donors," Dr. Binagwaho said. Read more |
| 14 June 2011 | Vaccine funding: immunising children 'world's greatest health success'
The Telegraph - David Cameron has announced a new £814 million funding boost to vaccinate more than 80 million children against diseases like pneumonia and diarrhoea. Here are some facts about the drive to immunise. Read more |
| 14 June 2011 | Vaccine Funding Gap Plugged
The Wall Street Journal - Large donations from the U.K., Norway and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation helped a global vaccine charity raise $4.3 billion at a summit Monday, exceeding its targets and allowing it to carry out all its immunization plans through 2015. Read more |
| 14 June 2011 | Donors pledge $4.3B to help global child vaccine program CNN - Over $4.3 billion was pledged by major public and private donors at a conference in London on Monday to aid projects vaccinating children in developing countries. Read more |
| 14 June 2011 | British aid to vaccinate a child every two seconds wiredgov | DFID - British aid will help vaccinate a child in the developing world every two seconds for the next five years, the Prime Minister announced yesterday. Read more |
| 13 June 2011 | UK to give additional £814m vaccine funding The Guardian - David Cameron says aid will help to save 1.4m lives from preventable conditions such as pneumonia and diarrhoea Read more |
| 13 June 2011 | Can a Gavi conference help a lone nurse in rural Madagascar? The Guardian - Health workers are helping to increase child vaccination levels in poor countries, but they need more than just syringes and vials. Read more |
| 13 June 2011 | Gates and UK pledge $2.3 billion for vaccines for poor
Reuters - Billionaire Bill Gates and Britain pledged $2.3 billion at an international donor conference on Monday to fund vaccination programs to protect children in poor countries against diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia. Read more |
| 13 June 2011 | Vaccines Save Lives: Every Child, Everywhere
Huffington Post - Today we get to celebrate a significant milestone for global health equity. The GAVI Alliance, an organization that helps make sure children in poor countries get the same vaccines that children in rich countries do, just met its fundraising target for the next four years. Read more |
| 13 June 2011 | Why the London Vaccine Summit Is a Triumph for Global Health TIME - When the media writes about vaccines in the U.S. and Europe, usually we're reporting on the endless controversy over whether some vaccines cause autism. (Short answer: they don't.) That's the luxury of wealth and health -- thanks in no small part to the 20th-century legacy of mass vaccinations, virtually no parent in the developed world needs to worry that their child will be carried off by measles or rubella or polio or any of the other childhood diseases that once terrorized families. Vaccination is almost certainly the greatest triumph in the history of public health, even if it's one that many otherwise intelligent people feel free to turn their backs on. Read more |
| 13 June 2011 | $4.3 Billion Pledged at Vaccine Fund-Raiser New York Times - Public and private donors have pledged $4.3 billion toward vaccinating children against a variety of diseases, according to the GAVI Alliance, which held its first fund-raising conference for vaccines in London on Monday. Read more |
| 13 June 2011 | United States pledges multi-year contribution to reduce immunization cost Reliefweb - Dr. Rajiv Shah, Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), released the following statement to announce an increased U.S. commitment to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). "I am pleased to announce that the United States will continue one of the best, most cost-effective life-saving investments we have ever made. Read more |
| 13 June 2011 | Vaccine funding: Cameron announces the UK will provide a further £814m International Business Times - UK Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged £814m to help vaccinate children around the world against preventable diseases like pneumonia at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi) conference in London. Read more |
| 13 June 2011 | Bill Gates and others pledge $4.3 billion for vaccines LA Times - Bill Gates, the Microsoft cofounder who has recently been focusing most of his efforts on philanthropy, joined several world leaders to pledge billions for vaccines for children in poor countries. "This is absolutely human generosity at its finest," Gates told reporters Monday at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization conference in London. Read more |
| 13 June 2011 | Speech by UNICEF Executive Director at GAVI Replenishing Event
UNICEF - UNICEF is proud to be a founding member of the GAVI Alliance. We intend to strengthen our support because GAVI’s success is our success, all of our success, in saving children’s lives. Let me explain why. Read more |
| 12 June 2011 | Four hours to save four million children Al Jazeera - World leaders have four hours to save the lives of four million children at the Global Vaccinations Summit in London. Read more |
| 12 June 2011 | Bill Gates upbeat ahead of global vaccination summit BBC - On the eve of the London summit, one of the world's most influential men explained what he hoped would emerge from the global conference. Read more |
| 11 June 2011 | David Cameron defends international aid rise with vaccine pledge The Observer - David Cameron has made an impassioned defence of increased spending on international aid, arguing that British people have a "moral" duty to help save children in the poorest nations from "entirely preventable" deaths. Read more |
| 11 June 2011 | Immunisation in Sierra Leone - pneumonia and diarrhoea BBC News - What does the future hold for Emma and her siblings? That is the question that I kept asking myself. Emma is eight months old and was one of many babies being cradled by their mothers at the Gondama community health centre. It's a rural area about four hours drive from the capital Freetown. Read more |
| 10 June 2011 | Inside a vaccine clinic in Sierra Leone BBC News | Sierra Leone - The BBC's medical correspondent, Fergus Walsh, has been to Sierra Leone to see what progress is being made in improving child health. It has one of the highest rates of child mortality, but there are signs of improvement. Read more |
| 09 June 2011 | More vaccines for poor could save 6.4 million lives Reuters - Millions of children's lives and billions of dollars could be saved if vaccines were more widely available in 72 of the world's poorest countries, according to research published on Thursday. Read more |
| 09 June 2011 | Dramatic fall in cases of meningitis A after new vaccine introduction WHO - Six months after the successful introduction of a new vaccine aimed at eliminating the primary cause of meningitis epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger report the lowest number of confirmed meningitis A cases ever recorded during an epidemic season. Read more |
| 09 June 2011 | Government to match vaccine pledges Press Association - The Government is set to promise to match millions of pounds in donations by businesses to fund vaccines against illnesses for children in the developing world. Read more |
| 07 June 2011 | A few drops will save our children's lives The Nation - Every day, children die needlessly from a little-known disease with a devastating impact. But this past week, there is new cause for optimism. Children in developing countries will get access to a vaccine. The GAVI Alliance has been offered a significant price reduction for rotavirus vaccines by a pharmaceutical company, and now has plans to rapidly accelerate its financial support for rotavirus vaccines. Read more |
| 07 June 2011 | In Madagascar, UNICEF and GAVI work to protect health gains for children UNICEF - It is late morning at Ankariera health centre. The small three-room clinic -- the only facility in a 10 km radius -- is ready for a busy day. UNICEF, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and the World Health Organization are working to keep the national immunization programme operational and give every child the protection he or she needs from deadly yet preventable diseases such as tetanus and hepatitis B. Read more |
| 07 June 2011 | GAVI's Future CSIS - On June 13, the GAVI Alliance convenes its first pledging conference in London with the aim of securing $3.7 billion to immunize an additional 4 million children by 2015. Download report by Center for Strategic and International Studies. Read more |
| 06 June 2011 | Drug firms cut vaccine prices to the developing world BBC Online | Business - Several major drugs companies have announced big cuts to the amounts they charge for their vaccines in the developing world. Read more |
| 06 June 2011 | Vaccine price cuts win praise - but £2.2bn funding gap remains The Guardian - Several large drug firms have announced big cuts to the amounts they charge for their vaccines in the developing world Read more |
| 06 June 2011 | UK to match private donations to vaccine body
Financial Times - The UK will match tens of millions of pounds in private sector donations to fund immunisation programmes in the developing world, in a drive to generate international support for 250m extra vaccinations over the next four years. Read more |
| 06 June 2011 | Vaccine value recognised in Sierra Leone
Sky news - With babies strapped to their backs, teenage mothers trek for kilometres in scorching temperatures to reach community health centres in remote parts of west Africa's Sierra Leone. Read more |
| 06 June 2011 | UK 'missing out' as drug giants slash vaccine prices Channel 4 News - The world's top drug makers slash vaccine prices in the developing world but industry experts say the radical change is a strategic business decision, not philanthropy. Read more |
| 06 June 2011 | Price chop for vaccines for world's poor
NPR | Market Place - Western pharmaceutical companies cut prices after UNICEF publicizes what they charge for life-saving vaccines. Read more |
| 30 May 2011 | Vaccine alliance seeks US$3.7 bln from London meeting
Reuters - International health alliance GAVI is seeking $3.7 billion from a June 13 pledging conference in London to help deliver vaccines to nearly a quarter of a billion children across the world by 2015. Read more |
| 26 May 2011 | Germany Raises Funding For Gavi To €30m African Science News Service - The announcement from Germany's Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) was made ahead of the G8 summit due to start later this week and is part of a plan to implement last year's G8 commitment to the Muskoka initiative for maternal and child health. Read more |
| 25 May 2011 | PM Cameron and President Obama reaffirm commitment to global development Downing Street - We will continue to work together, not least at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) Replenishment Conference in June, and to ensure the GAVI Alliance has the resources it needs to do its job. The introduction of new and underused vaccines could result in another 250 million children being immunised and prevent four million childhood deaths by 2015. Read more |
| 25 May 2011 | A Special Relationship to save lives Huffington Post - This week during his first official state visit to the United Kingdom, President Barack Obama will meet with Prime Minister David Cameron to discuss pressing issues faced by the allies. While the global economy, the NATO mission in Libya and the war in Afghanistan will figure prominently in the agenda, the two leaders are expected to discuss an issue less likely to be in the headlines: a plan to save over 4 million lives by providing vaccines to the children who need them most. Read more |
| 25 May 2011 | Interview with Bill Roedy on becoming GAVI’s first envoy BBC Radio 4 | Midweek - Question: You’ve been involved in global health, like AIDS before. What are you doing now? Bill Roedy: GAVI is an impressive story. It’s remarkable really. You give a vaccination, you save a child’s life. It’s Bill and Melinda Gates’ largest initiative. It’s been around for 10 years. It’s responsible for saving 5 million lives. And 1.7M children’s lives can be saved every year with vaccinations. Vaccines are here. There is an infrastructure and a solution. It’s incredible that there’s a vaccination for pneumonia and rotavirus – which kill more than HIV and malaria combined – and it works. Read more |
| 25 May 2011 | Former CEO of MTV Networks Bill Roedy Takes Up Fight Against Childhood Disease PR Newswire - The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) is proud to announce that Bill Roedy, the architect behind the internationally known MTV Networks, has joined the GAVI family to advocate for immunisation. Read more |
| 25 May 2011 | Vaccines: The real issues in vaccine safety
Nature - Hysteria about false vaccine risks often overshadows the challenges of detecting the real ones. Read more |
| 24 May 2011 | Call to Action for G8 countries to fund GAVI REPAOC - For the very first time, the two largest NGO networks from West Africa (REPAOC) and Central Africa (REPONGAC) signed a common statement, requesting G8 leaders to fully fund GAVI on the occasion of its donors' conference. Read more |
| 17 May 2011 | Bill Gates challenges global leaders at World Health Assembly Gates Foundation - Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, called on government leaders to increase their investments in vaccines and to hold themselves accountable for extending the benefits of vaccines to every child. Read more |
| 17 May 2011 | Afghan health minister seeks backing for vaccines Reuters - Afghanistan's acting health minister will seek international funding on Tuesday for immunisation, which she sees as key to reducing child mortality in a country where the average life expectancy is only 48 years. Read more |
| 06 April 2011 | Germany gives extra funding for child immunisation Associated Press/Canadian Press - The German government says it is providing an extra €14 million ($19.9 million) in funding for child immunization in the developing world as part of an agreement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Read more |
| 04 April 2011 | DR Congo introduces new vaccine against pneumonia Africa Science News Service - In an effort to drastically improve the chances of children reaching their fifth birthday, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has stepped up its immunization programme by including vaccines to combat pneumonia. Initially the expanded programme will be in two of the 11 provinces. Read more |
| 04 April 2011 | Living Proof Campaign launched in France Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will visit Paris today at an important time before France hosts the G8/G20 for the French launch of the Living Proof campaign in partnership with ONE. Read more |
| 04 April 2011 | Fragile states speak up on aid spending The Guardian | Poverty Matters Blog - The g7+ group of the poorest nations wants aid focused on addressing conflict and security. Could this be the year donors start to listen? Read more |
| 21 March 2011 | Kibera residents welcome new vaccine ONE - Daniel Thornton of GAVI writes about a new pneumococcal vaccine introduced to Kenya just last month. Read more |
| 21 March 2011 | Vaccinating the world - Helen Evans interviewed ABC Radio Australia - The GAVI Alliance works to immunise some of the world's poorest children against diseases like pneumonia, tuberculosis and malaria. Their interim CEO is Helen Evans, and she's in Australia to deliver an address to the Nossal Institute of Global Health at Melbourne University. Hear more |
| 15 March 2011 | Giving every child a fair chance - Dr. Mathuram Santosham ONE - Dr. Mathuram Santosham of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health has worked on the issue of rotavirus for decades. He believes that no mother should have to worry about whether or not her child will survive a bout of diarrhea. Read more |
| 10 March 2011 | Hillary Clinton discusses critical importance of GAVI ONE - This morning, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before a House Appropriations Subcommittee on the president’s budget request for the State Department and discussed US foreign policy priorities while urging lawmakers not to cut spending for diplomacy and foreign aid. During questioning, Secretary Clinton noted the critical role of GAVI in increasing access to new and underutilized vaccines in poor countries and the importance of US support for GAVI. Read more |
| 10 March 2011 | Health economics: The value of vaccinations ONE - A frequent debate in economic development is how best to make a lasting, positive impact on a low-income country. Not just a quick infusion or a project of limited scope, but a way to permanently raise the baseline of a country’s potential. Read more |
| 09 March 2011 | Hillary Clinton and Melinda Gates launch Saving Lives at Birth examiner.com - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Melinda Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation officially launched Saving Lives at Birth today during an event at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington DC. Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development is a new program which will seek innovative ways to prevent and treat pregnant women in and their newborns in rural, low-resource settings. Read more |
| 08 March 2011 | International Women’s Day Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | Mary Robinson blog - International Women’s Day is an outstanding opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women, past and present. It is also a day to reflect on what has not yet been delivered for women. Every day, 1500 women die while giving birth to a new life. Every year, over a quarter of a million women die from a cancer that can be prevented by vaccines. Most of these women live in the poorest countries of the world. Read more |
| 08 March 2011 | Graca Machel | Top 100 women activists and campaigners The Guardian - Former Mozambican education minister and advocate for the rights of southern African women and children: "Women have come a long way in the last 50 years. Much of this has been achieved despite, not because of, the attitude of powerful men," says Graca Machel, freedom fighter, education champion and tireless advocate for the rights of women and children. Read more |
| 08 March 2011 | Seth Berkley's move from IAVI to GAVI
Science - Seth Berkley is trading an "I" for a "G." In August, Berkley, who founded and heads the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), will take over the GAVI Alliance, another public-private partnership focused on vaccines but with the broader agenda of immunizing children in poor countries against many diseases. Read more |
| 02 March 2011 | Leading article: A sensible redirection of effort The Independent - It has been brave of the Coalition Government to stick to its election commitment to ring-fence Britain's £8.4bn overseas aid budget at a time when public spending is being slashed so heavily. We should not balance our books at the expense of the most wretched people on the planet, especially when comparatively small amounts of money can save many lives in the developing world. Read more |
| 02 March 2011 | Introducing our new blog series, ‘The power of vaccines’ ONE - ONE will be launching a huge action around vaccines sometime soon. But before we officially introduce the petition to you, my plan is to make sure you know everything you need to know about vaccines. There will be guest posts from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, PATH and GAVI. Read more |
| 01 March 2011 | Taking forward the findings of the UK Multilateral Aid Review ReliefWeb | DFID - We have already announced funding increases to IDA and UNICEF. We stand ready to boost significantly our funding to GAVI, GFATM, the Private Infrastructure Development Group (the PIDG) and the Asian Development Fund. Exact amounts will be agreed in the following months as we negotiate and agree their commitments to results and reform. Read more |
| 01 March 2011 | GAVI Alliance Welcomes UK Multilateral Aid Review
allAfrica.com - GAVI recognised for critical role in reducing childhood deaths through vaccination and bringing together immunisation partners. Read more |
| 22 February 2011 | Dr. Orin Levine | Unexpected returns The Huffington Post - Orin Levin writes about his visit to Kenya to attend the pneumococcal vaccine launch and meet old friends from the past. He also visited Langata District Health Centre and Mbagathi District Hospital. Read more |
| 21 February 2011 | Value of Vaccines
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | Blog - By now you probably know that vaccines are one of the best investments in global health. Today we have highly cost-effective vaccines for pneumonia, diarrhea and meningitis, which account for over 2.5 million child deaths each year. Read more |
| 20 February 2011 | Bono on Africa: 'What excites me is thinking about its future' The Observer - The U2 singer tells the Observer's editor why the continent stands on the brink of becoming an economic powerhouse. Read more |
| 19 February 2011 | Letter from Parliament - Jim Dobbin MP Rochdale Online - On Monday 14 February, I was invited by the Ministry of Public Health in Kenya to attend the global rollout of the pneumococcal vaccine in Nairobi in the presence of the President of Kenya. The invitation came because I am Chairman of the Global Action against Childhood Pneumonia All Party Group in Parliament. The Group has written a report on this serious issue. The world’s biggest child killer is pneumonia. Read more |
| 18 February 2011 | Vaccines: what's your elevator speech? Global Health | Blogs - The question was simple. You're on an elevator. You're standing next to a Tea Party member of Congress. What's your elevator speech to persuade the U.S. representative that it's important to invest in vaccines for the developing world? Read more |
| 18 February 2011 | Better access to generic medicines WHO | Dr Margaret Chan - Opening remarks at a joint WHO/WIPO/WTO technical symposium on access to medicines, patent information and freedom to operate. Read more |
| 17 February 2011 | Will the US lead on Global Health? Center for Global Development - USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah gave a speech yesterday at the National Institutes of Health, highlighting his aspirations for U.S. leadership on global health. By 2015, among other goals, he hopes that "the majority of all children have access to pentavalent, rota, pneumo and meningitis vaccines and that we have eradicated polio." Read more |
| 16 February 2011 | Pneumococcal vaccine formally introduced to Kenya's routine immunization programme UNICEF - The pneumococcal vaccine was launched this week by Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki at a colourful ceremony in the nation’s capital of Nairobi. The free vaccine, will be administered to all children under twelve months of age; protecting thousands of children across the country. Read more |
| 14 February 2011 | New tool to fight pneumonia in children set for launch allAfrica.com - Kenya, with the support of the GAVI Alliance is set to roll out pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) routinely throughout all health facilities with the aim of saving lives of thousands of infants from death and illness due to pneumococcal disease. Read more |
| 14 February 2011 | Pneumonia vaccine launched in Kenya AFP - A vaccine against pneumonia, the leading cause of child deaths around the world, was rolled out in Kenya Monday and is expected to save hundreds of thousands of lives in coming years. Read more |
| 14 February 2011 | Leadership + Innovation = Lives Saved Melinda Gates Blog | The Huffington Post - Today in Nairobi, hundreds of children will receive protection from pneumonia. Kenya's President Emilio Mwai Kibaki will join GAVI Alliance CEO Helen Evans, John Hopkins University's Dr. Orin Levine, pediatricians, health workers, and other partners to celebrate the introduction of a new vaccine against pneumonia in Kenya. Read more |
| 14 February 2011 | Vaccines alliance wants more industry price cuts Reuters - The pharmaceuticals industry must do more to cut prices of key vaccines for developing nations and close the gap with rich nations for access to them, the new head of an international vaccine-buying alliance said on Monday. Read more |
| 14 February 2011 | Life-saving vaccine rolled out in Kenya The Guardian - Congratulations to Kenya and to GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisations, and to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on the official launch in Africa today of its vaccine against pneumococcal disease. There is every likelihood that the vaccine will save thousands of childrens' lives in Kenya. Pneumonia is responsible for 18% of child deaths in developing countries, killing half a million children before their fifth birthday. Read more |
| 14 February 2011 | Introduction of new-generation pneumococcal vaccine will help save lives WHO - In an effort to protect more children against pneumococcal disease ¯ which causes life-threatening illnesses such as pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis ¯ the Government of Kenya, with support from WHO and partners, is introducing the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. Read more |
| 14 February 2011 | In Africa, a Vaccine Against the 'Silent Killer' ABC News - When people in the United States hear the word pneumonia, they tend to think of the elderly and hospital infections. But this "silent killer" is actually the No. 1 cause of death for kids in the developing world, killing more children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. Read more |
| 09 February 2011 | Dr. Orin Levine | Uncommon rewards The Huffington Post - This year marks the first time ever that children in the world's poorest countries will have access to the same pneumonia vaccines as children in the USA, and on the same timeline. Read more |
| 09 February 2011 | In Africa, cancer a burden that can no longer be ignored The Guardian - Cancer kills more people globally than HIV/Aids, TB and malaria, and in Africa it is becoming a growing health burden. Read more |
| 31 January 2011 | Pneumonia vaccine to save thousands of lives Yemen Times - A mass drive to immunise Yemen’s future generations against pneumonia was kick-started yesterday in a move that could save the lives of up to 5,000 Yemeni infants every year, according to UNICEF. Read more |
| 26 January 2011 | Melinda Gates 'excited' by pneumonia vaccine BBC News - The BBC's medical correspondent Fergus Walsh joins Melinda Gates at the Langata health centre in Nairobi, Kenya, where scores of mothers have been bringing their babies for immunisation. Read more |
| 24 January 2011 | Pneumonia vaccine 'to save thousands of lives' BBC News - A new vaccine against pneumonia is being rolled out in Africa which estimates suggest could save more than half a million lives a year globally. Read more |
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