ABSTRACT
WHO is now celebrating more than 30 years of freedom from smallpox. What was originally seen as a victory over an ancient scourge can now be viewed as an epidemiologically driven programme to overcome governmental inertia and under-achievement in delivering an off-patent vaccine. Though efforts are accelerating global vaccine use, a plea is made to push the world's governments to commit to universal childhood vaccination via a proposed new programme. The latter should begin by exploiting a long list of ever more affordable off-patent vaccines, vaccines that can virtually eliminate the bulk of the world's current vaccine-preventable disease burden.
Subject(s)
Government , Health Policy , Immunization Programs/organization & administration , Vaccination/economics , Vaccination/statistics & numerical data , Vaccines/administration & dosage , Vaccines/immunology , Adolescent , Child , Child, Preschool , Humans , Infant , Smallpox/epidemiology , Smallpox/prevention & control , World Health OrganizationABSTRACT
Nearly 3 million children die each year of infectious diseases preventable with vaccines, many costing only pennies per dose. The shameful under use of existing vaccines receives scant attention. It is well within the reach of existing resources to assure the ongoing vaccination of all children everywhere. Human society needs to have universal immunization be achieved and maintained because child survival is a necessary precondition to a stable human population and to economic development. A path forward is suggested.
