GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, has called on donors for $7.4 billion to help immunise 300 million children against life-threatening diseases between 2021 and 2025, and save up to eight million lives.
The announcement was made in Yokohama, where Japan is hosting a three-day international conference on African development. The Democratic Republic of Congo, a mineral-rich central African country, is being hit by the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.
GAVI, which is backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization (WHO), donor governments and others, funds immunisation programs for poor nations that cannot afford to buy vaccines at rich-world prices.
“Over the past two decades the Vaccine Alliance has helped to protect a generation against some of the world’s deadliest diseases,” GAVI CEO Seth Berkley said in a statement.
“However, 1.5 million people are still dying every year from vaccine-preventable diseases … This calls for an urgent response to ensure people continue to be protected against disease, to prevent deadly outbreaks and to help the next generation prosper.”
