The Growth of Global Immunisation -Gates Foundation
Interactive Map at link.
Vaccines: Who’s missing out?
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 1.5 million deaths children under five die each year from diseases that could have been prevented by routine immunisation.
The chart shows that pneumococcal diseases and rotavirus infection are responsible for around two thirds of these deaths. The former causes pneumonia and the latter is the most common cause of severe diarrhoea.
Vaccines against the main causes of both infections have been introduced in the past decade. They are now routinely available in wealthier countries and are being gradually introduced across the developing world.
The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) has preliminary plans to support the introduction of rotavirus vaccines in more than 30 of the world’s poorest countries by 2015.
More than 25 developing countries have begun using pneumococcal vaccines and it hopes to rollout the jab in 45 countries by 2015.