GAVI rolls out vaccines against child killers to more countries

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI Alliance) has announced that it will provide funding for 16 developing countries to introduce rotavirus vaccines and for 18 to introduce pneumococcal vaccines.

The alliance says that this is “a major step towards protecting children against severe diarrhoea and pneumonia—the two leading child killers.”

Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhoea in children under 5 years of age, killing more than half a million children each year worldwide and causing illness in several million more.

The alliance says that nearly 50% of all deaths from rotavirus occur in African …