GAVI Alliance Commits Up to $162 Million to Quash Measles Outbreaks
GAVI Alliance Commits Up to $162 Million to Quash Measles Outbreaks
The Seattle-based GAVI Alliance has announced an additional commitment of up to $162 million to address the resurgence of measles in developing nations.
Over the next five years, the alliance will make up to $107 million available for measles control and prevention efforts in six high-risk countries: Afghanistan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Another $55 million will go to the Measles & Rubella Initiative for rapid-response vaccination programs in GAVI-eligible countries where outbreaks occur. The decision follows GAVI's commitment last November to provide more than $600 million to tackle rubella through a combined measles-rubella vaccine in some forty-eight countries.
Measles is highly infectious and can cause serious illness, life-long disability, and death. In 1980, before widespread use of a global vaccine, an estimated 2.6 million people died from measles worldwide. Increased routine vaccination has led to a 74 percent drop in measles mortality, from an estimated 535,000 deaths in 2000 to 139,000 in 2010. In recent years, however, progress in further reducing the death toll from measles has stalled due to outbreaks in Africa and a high disease burden in India.
"Measles is the 'canary in the coal mine' because outbreaks can signal that routine immunization coverage is faltering," said GAVI Alliance CEO Seth Berkley. "In order to eliminate measles, vaccine coverage must be at least 90 percent so that adequate herd immunity is created. Fighting back when outbreaks occur and ensuring high routine coverage are critical to controlling measles and all other vaccine-preventable diseases."
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