Immunizing the world’s children against infectious diseases has dramatically cut childhood death and suffering in recent decades. In 2010, philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates called for a new “Decade of Vaccines” to vault the progress dramatically forward.
The June 2011 issue of Health Affairs<http://www.healthaffairs.org>, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, examines the strategies that will be needed to achieve the goal. These include making advances in basic vaccine science; devoting more money and other resources to developing vaccines for neglected diseases, such as those like hookworm infections that afflict the world’s poorest people; helping to finance the rollout of critical new vaccines for conditions such as pneumonia and rotavirus; and fostering new product development partnerships that bring pharmaceutical companies, global funders and others together to make new vaccines possible.
Two studies in that issue project huge benefits from a major ramp-up of vaccine development and delivery over the next 10 years in 72 countries. The studies, by Meghan Stack et al<http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/30/6/1021.abstract> and by Sachiko Ozawa at al, <http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/30/6/1010.abstract> find that the deaths of 6.4 million children could be prevented, while at the same time saving more than $151 billion in treatment costs and producing economic benefits of $231 billion.
Most of today’s vaccines are based on scientific knowledge from past centuries, and breakthroughs won’t happen until dramatic new approaches are found, says Adel Mahmoud, a Professor in Molecular Biology and Public Policy at Princeton University. The au<http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/30/6/1034.abstract>thor calls for a renewed focus on basic scientific research, the training of a new generation of specialists experienced in new sciences, and a global “road map” that spells out clearly-defined objectives for how vaccines will be developed and deployed. To ensure success, the leaders of developing nations must be at the forefront of these activities and invest their own countries’ resources, author says.
Most children in the United States are getting regularly scheduled immunizations for infant and childhood diseases. But a new survey published in the June Health Affairs<http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/30/6/1151.abstract> shows that some parents remain unpersuaded that all vaccines are safe or even necessary. The results of the survey, analyzed by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Vaccine Program Office, suggest that more should be done to address parents’ concerns. “The good news is that almost all parents are getting their children vaccinated. But that doesn’t necessarily mean all parents have a high level of confidence in those vaccines,” says lead author Allison Kennedy, an epidemiologist in CDC’s Immunization Services Division. “These findings point us toward what we need to focus on to better answer questions and concerns parents have about why immunization is important.” Kennedy says parental education should include thorough explanations as to why infant immunizations should occur before age two. “That is when children are very vulnerable to contracting severe disease,” says Kennedy. As to other concerns voiced by some parents about vaccine safety, she adds that “There is no credible evidence that vaccines are associated with learning disabilities, including autism.”
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Kathleen Ford
mailto:Ford@projecthope.org