Another eight million children and adults also could be saved each year by vaccines which are currently under development and may be available for use as early as the year 2005, according to the CVI plan. New vaccines could also be a powerful weapon against the worrying re-emergence of deadly diseases, such as tuberculosis, which have developed resistance to antibiotics, says the plan released here Sunday.
Vaccinations prevent children from contracting the disease, thus making treatment unnecessary.
CVI was launched at the Children's Summit in New York in 1990. That effort is estimated to have saved between two and three million lives a year. Since then, however, no new vaccines have been introduced widely, and the percentage of children who are vaccinated has not increased significantly. There is no question that a new vaccination effort would be very cost-effective, particularly for governments which often bear most of the burden for costs incurred by diseases. Global health expenditures amount to some two trillion dollars each year, according to the report, but only ten billion dollars is spent on vaccinations, and only a tenth of that is earmarked for research and development of new vaccines.