The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday launched a globalvaccination program, "The Children's Challenge," at the 30th annualmeeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the eastern Swiss townof Davos.
The new program aims to achieve universal immunization ofchildren against polio, diphtheria, tuberculosis, whooping cough,measles and tetanus.
"Today, 30 million children do not receive basic immunization,which may eventually lead to the deaths of three million dying of avaccine-preventable disease," WHO Director-General Gro HarlemBrundtland said when launching the new program.
She said that immunizing all children made economic as well ashumanitarian sense: "The campaign will lay the foundation forpersonal development, social development and, eventually, economicdevelopment for entire societies."
Diseases like AIDS and tuberculosis, said the WHO chief, havedevastated developing economies through lost productivity. Povertyand ill-health, she noted, have overtaken territorial disputes asthe biggest threats to global stability.
A WHO official in charge of the global program said the campaignalso intends to correct imbalances between industrialized anddeveloping countries.
The program is sponsored by the Global Alliance for Vaccines andImmunizations (GAVI), a group of international organizations,development banks and private donors.
Much of the funds needed comes from the foundation set up by thefounder of the Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates, and his wife,Melinda. In 1999, they donated 750 million U.S. dollars to helpstart up the GAVI campaign over five years.
Gates told delegates in Davos that businesses, governments andphilanthropists should work together to provide the life-savingvaccines that are often taken for granted to children around theworld.
"It's a priority that comes even before how everyone should haveaccess to the Internet. More important is that everyone should havebasic health rights. That means all of these vaccines ought to beavailable worldwide," he said.
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