GAVI Alliance

During this month of December when our thoughts often turn to helping those less fortunate than ourselves, we'd like to introduce GAVI ALLIANCE and its simple, yet powerful mission to IMMUNIZE EVERY CHILD. Vaccines are truly life giving gifts, and perhaps the worlds best hope for slashing the still scandalously high rates of infant mortality in the poorest communities of the world.

Founded by Nelson Mandela, Bill Gates, and other world leaders in 2000, GAVI unites all of the major stakeholders in this cause for immunization: developing country and donor governments, vaccine manufacturers worldwide, the World Health Organization, the UN Children's Fund, the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other private philanthropists.

Vaccine-preventable diseases: such as pneumonia, rotavirus and cervical cancer, impose two enormous burdens on the world, one direct, and one indirect. The direct burden is the more obvious: it is the suffering and death of millions of children and adults who are not protected from easily prevented diseases. Every year, 9.7 million children die before their fifth birthday, and a quarter of these deaths are due to diseases that are preventable through vaccination. The problem with such statistics is that they are difficult to grasp. This is a real issue - the human mind is not very good at appreciating the scale of such large numbers. In absolute terms, the death toll is equal to half the total number of US children under five currently alive. Put another way, you could fill every professional football stadium in the United States five times over with the number of children who will die this year.

The very scale of those numbers and the visualization of that many people suffering and dying is justification enough to tackle this crisis. And yet, it is the indirect burden of vaccine-preventable diseases that presents an even more compelling motivation. Through careful and systematic research, the impact of disease on growth and overall economic welfare is now well understood.

Immunization is a cornerstone of public health programs and serves as a platform for other interventions. These programs have been sustained for decades, even through war and conflict. In one of the greatest successes in public health history, smallpox was eradicated by immunization campaigns in 1979, and polio eradication is now within reach. Each year approximately 25 million infants do not receive the necessary immunizations, and at least 2.4 million children die from vaccine-preventable diseases -- approximately 14 percent of deaths in children under 5. Millions more survive, but are left severely impaired. The long-term effects of these childhood illnesses limit the ability of those who survive to become educated, to work, or to care for themselves or others.

The world needs changing - and is changing, with the help of the GAVI ALLIANCE and its partnerships, more than 213 million children have been vaccinated against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, yellow fever, hepatitis B, and Hib (Haemophilus influenza type b) and has prevented more than three million deaths in the process. GAVI has improved health services in 72 nations - home to half the world's population and, to date, GAVI has marshaled $4 billion for vaccination through 2015. During this holiday season - why not give the gift of life to a child by insuring their ability to be immunized against childhood diseases - give to GAVI directly or support their cause by shopping through their mall and SAVE A LIFE.