In the News

State of the World's Vaccines and Immunizations

November 12, 2009

At the Sabin Vaccine Institute, we’re firm believers in the powerful role that vaccines and immunizations play in reducing needless suffering from infectious and neglected tropical diseases. Our convictions were confirmed in the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and World Bank’s “State of the World’s Vaccines and Immunizations” report released last month which affirmed the link between immunization and reducing poverty and mortality; improving general welfare and future productivity; preventing debilitating illness and disability; and achieving several Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in particular, reducing deaths of children under the age of five.

The WHO described the past decade as “the most productive in the history of vaccine development,” and I am proud of the work that the Sabin Vaccine Institute has accomplished to contribute to this momentum. Early in my career as a researcher, my efforts to develop a vaccine for human hookworm infection were met with weak enthusiasm from my peers who placed more precedence on other diseases despite the enormous burden that hookworm inflicts on hundreds of millions of individuals. Now, however, the Sabin Vaccine Development initiative is working steadfastly on research and development of vaccines to combat human hookworm infection, and schistosomiasis, to add to the growing list of over 30 vaccine preventable diseases.

And, increasingly, we’re forming partnerships with international organizations and institutions to share knowledge and resources to create effective vaccines. There is a growing collaborative spirit in the field of global health and vaccinology that I believe will increase the accessibility to health interventions that eliminate deaths and debilitation from preventable and treatable diseases.

While tremendous milestones have been reached, there are many challenges that lie ahead and overcoming some of these obstacles rests in increasing vaccine advocacy and education. According to the WHO report, around 24 million children under one years old – almost 20% of the children born every year – are not being reached with vaccines. There are several reasons for this disparity; some nations have not given priority to delivering immunizations although they can afford to do so, while other nations lack the proper infrastructure and/or means to distribute existing vaccines.

Sabin’s Sustainable Immunization Financing (SIF) program is tasked with ensuring that a high price tag on vaccines does not keep them from reaching the children who need them the most by identifying long-term funding solutions for national immunization programs. Just last month, after a parliamentary meeting coordinated by SIF, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Minister of Budget issued an order for the release of funds to the GAVI Alliance, thereby fulfilling part of DR Congo’s international obligations. Moreover, DR Congo’s parliamentarians are beginning to consider the feasibility of establishing a national fund for childhood immunizations.

A lack of information and understanding about the impact of vaccines and immunizations, from both the general population and national governments, is an additional hindrance to efforts to improve global health and reduce poverty. Sabin’s International Vaccine Advocacy team works with policy makers, public health officials, healthcare professionals, diplomats, and others to improve access to, and knowledge about, vaccines.

To my friends and colleagues in the global health and vaccinology fields, let’s make sure that the next “State of the World’s Vaccines and Immunizations” is even more promising than this last hopeful report.

Peter Hotez MD PhD