Record number of infants immunised but 24 million in poor nations not being reached, says report

doi:10.1136/bmj.b4331

Published 21 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4331
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4331

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Record number of infants immunised but 24 million in poor nations not being reached, says report

John Zarocostas

¹ Geneva

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

Global immunisation levels of infants are now at their highestever, a record 106 million in 2008, averting an estimated 2.5million child deaths a year. However, vaccines still do notreach millions of children in poor developing nations, saysa report by the World Health Organization, Unicef, and the WorldBank.

"We must overcome the divide that separates rich from poor—betweenthose who get life saving vaccines and those who don’t,"said Margaret Chan, WHO’s director general.

An estimated 24 million children, or almost 20% of childrenborn every year, "do not get the complete immunisations scheduledfor the first year of life," concludes the report.

But it estimates that an additional $1bn (£600m; ${euro}$ 700m)a year will be needed to ensure new and existing vaccines willbe delivered to all children in the 72 poorest nations.