Press releases, 2013

Accomplished Global Health Strategist Natasha Bilimoria to lead U.S. mobilisation, building strong support for life-saving vaccines for children in developing countries.

Alliance Board selects additional vaccines to include in its portfolio.

Pneumonia remains the single biggest killer of children under five globally, claiming the lives of more than one million girls and boys every year. But pneumonia deaths are preventable. As countries mark World Pneumonia Day on 12 November, the GAVI Alliance, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) are highlighting essential actions that can help end child deaths from this disease.

Ethiopia becomes the 17th country to introduce rotavirus vaccine with GAVI Alliance support.

Mid-Term Review meeting highlights immunisation successes and challenges.

The GAVI Alliance is on track to meet its ambitious targets of supporting developing countries to immunise an additional quarter of a billion children by 2015, and preventing nearly four million deaths in the process. [Arabic] | [Chinese] | [German] | [Italian] | [Japanese] | [Korean] | [Spanish]

The GAVI Alliance welcomes the decision. The national scale-up of pentavalent vaccine in India could save a million lives.

The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) becomes the first South East Asian nation to introduce pneumococcal vaccine and begin a demonstration project for HPV vaccine, simultaneously tackling two major killers of children and women respectively – pneumococcal disease and cervical cancer.

DR Congo: 6.8 million children immunised against measles in the Equateur and Orientale provinces.

Children across Indonesia are set to be protected from five major childhood diseases through the pentavalent vaccine thanks to an ambitious plan to reach children across the country’s 6,000 inhabited islands by the end of next year.

Sabin Vaccine Institute convenes government officials to discuss progress on sustainable immunization financing programs (News release: Sabin Vaccine Institute).

The GAVI Alliance has approved US$ 21 million to help improve vaccine supply chains in Nigeria as part of a partnership aimed at scaling up routine immunisation. 

The GAVI Alliance and Lions Clubs International announce a unique partnership designed to protect tens of millions of children in the world’s poorest countries against measles, a highly infectious disease that kills an estimated 430 people every day, mostly in developing countries.

Millions of children in the world’s poorest countries stand to benefit from a US$ 700 million bond issue, whose proceeds will help fund immunisation programmes by the GAVI Alliance.

The GAVI Alliance announces the appointment of Pascal Barollier, 48, a French national, as the new Director of Media & Communications.

Two new vaccines that help protect against cervical cancer, measles and rubella spearhead the GAVI Alliance’s commitment to improving the health of girls and women.

Kenya becomes the first country to protect girls against cervical cancer with GAVI-supported human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines.

Historic agreements show power of innovative public-private partnership

Haiti marks World Immunization Week with a ceremonial introduction of rotavirus vaccine into the country’s routine immunisation programme, with the support of the GAVI Alliance.

The Somali authorities launch a new five-in-one-vaccine against several potentially fatal childhood diseases, which could save thousands of lives [Somali].

The cost of immunising millions of the world’s most vulnerable children against five deadly and debilitating diseases is set to fall, thanks to a major price reduction of one third for pentavalent vaccine. This new, more cost-effective price provides the opportunity for the GAVI Alliance to pay up to US$ 150 million less over the next four years compared with using lowest cost alternative suppliers.

The GAVI Alliance receives an additional €1 million from the “la Caixa” Foundation to purchase life-saving vaccines for children in Latin America.

Rwanda’s measles-rubella vaccination campaign is the beginning of an effort to vaccinate more than 700 million children under 15 years of age against two disabling and deadly diseases.

The GAVI Alliance and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to help save children’s lives by accelerating the introduction of life-saving vaccines in IDB member countries.

An evaluation of the design of the pilot Advance Market Commitment (AMC) for pneumococcal vaccines published today shines a light on the groundbreaking funding mechanism which has already helped vaccinate 13 million children against the world’s biggest childhood killer.

The GAVI Alliance was awarded €2.5 million by the Dutch Postcode Lottery at the donor’s annual Goed Geld Gala , attended by dozens of recipient charitable organisations and honoured guests, including former US President Bill Clinton

More than 180,000 girls in eight developing countries are set to receive protection against the leading cause of cervical cancer thanks to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines funded by the GAVI Alliance.

New commitments from Comic Relief, LDS Charities and Vodafone bring total raised under innovative matching initiative to US$ 78 million.