BMJ  2008;336:750-753 (5 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.39497.598044.BE

Analysis

Rethinking global access to vaccines

¹ University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 3434 Sansom St, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA , ² Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Barriers to dissemination of life saving vaccines in low income countries can and should be overcome, argue Dave Chokshi and Aaron Kesselheim

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Inadequate access to vaccines in low and middle income countries results in more than two million deaths each year.¹ Two thirds of these deaths occur in children under the age of 5. Hepatitis B virus and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccines are now starting to be used in low and middle income countries, but they were licensed for use in the industrialised world more than two decades ago. Our difficulty in disseminating well established vaccines casts doubt on our ability to promote widespread use of new ones, such as those for diarrhoea associated with rotavirus infection and for human papillomavirus (a causative agent of cervical cancer) (table). Currently, over 99% of the 440 000 annual deaths from rotavirus associated diarrhoea and 93% of the 260 000 annual deaths from cervical cancer occur outside the 60 wealthiest countries.^{2 3}

View this table:   Development and dissemination of rotavirus and HPV vaccines

 
Three arguments have . . . [Full text of this article]

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