Asia PR News

KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ –

The deadly diseases pneumonia and meningitis kill an estimated 1.8 million
children under the age of 5 years across the globe every year. Of these, more
than 700,000 occur in the countries in the South-East Asia and Western Pacific
regions of the World Health Organization (WHO). Experts are meeting in
Malaysia to focus on two particularly concerning vaccine-preventable causes of
pneumonia and meningitis: the bacteria Haemophilus influenzae type B (or "Hib")
and Streptococcus pneumoniae.

The Bi-Regional meeting on "Preventing Childhood Pneumonia and Meningitis
with Vaccination" is being held on March 30 and 31 in Kuala Lumpur. This
event is being organized by WHO’s regional offices for South-East Asia and the
Western Pacific, UNICEF and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization
(now the GAVI Alliance) — Hib Initiative and The Pneumococcal Vaccines
Accelerated Development and Introduction Plan (PneumoADIP). "Emerging data
suggest a higher disease burden for pneumonia and meningitis than previously
thought in some Asian countries. Vaccination has been shown to be an
effective intervention that would protect Asian children from these serious
diseases today. Now is the time to make a decision on introduction of these
vaccines or to implement plans to gather additional data needed to support
decision-making," said Dr Thomas Cherian, Acting Coordinator, Expanded Program
on Immunization Plus, WHO, Geneva.

The participants will review the regional burden of Hib and pneumococcal
disease, and share lessons learned and case studies from Asian countries
tackling both infectious diseases. Experts will also examine challenges such
as resource allocation, supplies, and advocacy issues related to the
introduction of the Hib vaccine and propose innovative strategies to overcome
them in the near future.

Vaccines are available to protect children and adults from pneumonia and
meningitis. For more than 15 years industrialized countries have been
routinely vaccinating children for Hib, and since 2000 there has been a steady
introduction of a vaccine for pneumococcus. The GAVI Alliance has stepped up
efforts to improve access to vaccines against both diseases for children
living in developing countries.

Last year the GAVI Alliance launched the US$37 million Hib Initiative,
which comprises infectious disease experts from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School
of Public Health, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and WHO. An estimated 3.1
million cases of Hib disease occur each year in children under the age of 5
years, resulting in approximately 386,000 deaths.

"Children in developing countries should have access to these vaccines
just like children here in industrialized countries," said Rana Hajjeh, MD,
Project Director for the Hib Initiative. "The recent recommendation from
WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunization supports
global expansion of Hib vaccine programs. We all believe it is important to
examine the evidence and move quickly to save children’s lives."

The burden of pneumococcal disease in the developing world is even higher,
with an estimated 800,000 deaths occurring each year among children under 5.
PneumoADIP is a $30 million GAVI initiative based at the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health that is working to decrease this burden by
increasing access to life-saving vaccines.

"Safe, effective vaccines against Hib and pneumococcal disease are
available now," said Dr. Orin Levine, Executive Director of PneumoADIP. "We
must do everything possible to assure countries have access to these life-
saving vaccines. The price of inaction is hundreds of thousands of
unnecessary and preventable child deaths each year."

Notes to Editors

The GAVI Alliance
An alliance of all the major stakeholders in immunization, the GAVI
Alliance includes among its partners developing country and donor governments,
the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine
industry in both industrialized and developing countries, research and
technical agencies, NGOs, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is
estimated that more than 1.7 million early deaths will have been prevented as
a result of support by GAVI up to the end of 2005.

GAVI’s efforts are critical to achieving the Millennium Development Goal
on child health, which calls for reducing childhood mortality by two-thirds by
2015. Of the more than 10 million children who die before reaching their
fifth birthday every year, 2.5 million die from diseases that could be
prevented with currently available or new vaccines.

Website: http://www.preventpneumo.org

Website: http://www.HibAction.org

SOURCE: GAVI Alliance

CONTACT: Lois Privor-Dumm,
MIBS,
Director, Communications Strategy, of
The Hib Initiative,
mobile: +1-484-354-8054,
lprivord@jhsph.edu; or

Michelle Moncrieffe-Foreman,
MA, Communications Manager of GAVI’s PneumoADIP,
+1-410-502-2631,
mmoncrie@jhsph.edu; or

Nicole King of the GAVI Alliance,
+1-202-478-1041,
nking@vaccinefund.org

Web site: http://www.preventpneumo.org
http://www.HibAction.org