- Sep 2, 2008
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Bill and Melinda Gates Pledge $10 Billion in Call for Decade of Vaccines | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Good for them.
DAVOS, Switzerland -- Bill and Melinda Gates announced today that their foundation will commit $10 billion over the next 10 years to help research, develop and deliver vaccines for the worlds poorest countries.
The Gateses said that increased investment in vaccines by governments and the private sector could help developing countries dramatically reduce child mortality by the end of the decade, and they called for others to help fill critical financing gaps in both research funding and childhood immunization programs.
We must make this the decade of vaccines, said Bill Gates. Vaccines already save and improve millions of lives in developing countries. Innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before.
Bill and Melinda Gates made their announcement at the World Economic Forums Annual Meeting, where they were joined by Julian Lob-Levyt, CEO of the GAVI Alliance.
Vaccines are a miraclewith just a few doses, they can prevent deadly diseases for a lifetime, said Melinda Gates. Weve made vaccines our number-one priority at the Gates Foundation because weve seen firsthand their incredible impact on childrens lives.
By significantly scaling up the delivery of life-saving vaccines in developing countries to 90 percent coverageincluding new vaccines to prevent severe diarrhea and pneumoniathe model suggests that we could prevent the deaths of some 7.6 million children under 5 from 2010-2019. The foundation also estimates that an additional 1.1 million children could be saved with the rapid introduction of a malaria vaccine beginning in 2014, bringing the total number of potential lives saved to 8.7 million.
If additional vaccines are developed and introduced in this decadesuch as for tuberculosiseven more lives could be saved. The new funding announced today is in addition to the $4.5 billion that the Gates Foundation has already committed to vaccine research, development and delivery to date across its entire disease portfolio since its inception.
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