Gates foundation to commit $1.6 billion for Gavi vaccine alliance
June 24 (Reuters) - The Gates Foundation said on Tuesday it will commit $1.6 billion over the next five years to support Gavi, a public-private partnership that helps buy vaccines for the world's poorest children.
The number of kids dying around the world will likely go up this year because of the massive cuts to foreign aid, Bill Gates, the chair of the foundation, said in a statement, adding that funding Gavi was the single most powerful step to stop it.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a long-time vaccine skeptic, is set to speak this week at a fundraising event for Gavi, Reuters reported on Monday, citing sources
The Trump administration has previously indicated that it planned to cut its funding for Gavi.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Global vaccination efforts stall, leaving millions of children vulnerable to preventable diseases
Efforts to vaccinate children globally have stalled since 2010, leaving millions vulnerable to tetanus, polio, tuberculosis and other diseases that can be easily prevented. Protection from measles in particular dropped in 100 countries between 2010 and 2019, unravelling decades of progress, including in rich countries that had previously eliminated the highly infectious disease, according to a new analysis of global vaccination trends published Tuesday in the journal Lancet. 'After clean water, vaccination is the most effective intervention for protecting the health of our children,' said Helen Bedford, a professor of children's health at University College London, who was not connected to the research. She warned there has been a small but worrying rise in the number of parents skipping vaccination for their children in recent years, for reasons including misinformation. In Britain, Bedford said that has resulted in the largest number of measles recorded since the 1990s and the deaths of nearly a dozen babies from whooping cough. Vaccination rates in the U.S. are also falling, and exemptions from vaccinations are at an all-time high. After the World Health Organization established its routine immunization program in 1974, countries made significant efforts to protect children against preventable and sometimes fatal diseases; the program is credited with inoculating more than 4 billion children, saving the lives of 154 million worldwide. Since the program began, the global coverage of children receiving three doses of the diphtheria-tetanus-whooping cough vaccine nearly doubled, from 40% to 81%. The percentage of kids getting the measles vaccine also jumped from 37% to 83%, with similar increases for polio and tuberculosis. But after the COVID-19 pandemic, coverage rates dropped, with an estimated 15.6 million children missing out on the diphtheria-tetanus-whooping cough vaccine and the measles vaccine. Nearly 16 million children failed to get vaccinated against polio and 9 million missed out on the TB vaccine, with the biggest impact in sub-Saharan Africa. The study was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance. Researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, who conducted the analysis, noted that more than half of the world's 15.7 million unvaccinated children live in just eight countries in 2023: Nigeria, India, Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Indonesia and Brazil. Since President Trump has begun to withdraw the U.S. from the WHO and dismantled the U.S Agency for International Aid, public health experts have warned of new epidemics of infectious diseases. The researchers said it was too early to know what impact recent funding cuts might have on children's immunization rates. The WHO said there had been an 11-fold spike in measles in the Americas this year compared to 2024. Measles infections doubled in the European region in 2024 versus the previous year and the disease remains common in Africa and Southeast Asia. 'It is in everyone's interest that this situation is rectified,' said Dr. David Elliman, a pediatrician who has advised the British government, in a statement. 'While vaccine-preventable infectious diseases occur anywhere in the world, we are all at risk.' ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Millions of children at risk as global vaccine rates fall, study finds
Millions of children worldwide are at risk of lethal diseases because vaccine coverage has stalled or reversed amid persistent health inequalities and soaring levels of misinformation and hesitancy, the largest study of its kind has found. Major progress in rolling out jabs to billions of children in all corners of the globe over the last five decades has prevented the deaths of 154 million children, according to an analysis published in the Lancet. But since 2010, progress has stalled or reversed in many countries. Measles vaccination rates have fallen in 100 of 204 countries, while coverage for at least one dose against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, polio or tuberculosis has declined in 21 of 36 high-income countries – including France, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US. The reversal, further exacerbated by the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, has left millions of children vulnerable to preventable diseases and death, the authors of the study led by the University of Washington in Seattle said. 'Despite the monumental efforts of the past 50 years, progress has been far from universal,' said senior study author Dr Jonathan Mosser from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. 'Large numbers of children remain under- and un-vaccinated. 'Routine childhood vaccinations are among the most powerful and cost-effective public health interventions available, but persistent global inequalities, challenges from the Covid pandemic, and the growth of vaccine misinformation and hesitancy have all contributed to faltering immunisation progress. 'These trends increase the risk of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles, polio and diphtheria, underscoring the critical need for targeted improvements to ensure that all children can benefit from lifesaving immunisations.' The findings should be taken as a clear warning that global immunisation targets for 2030 will not be met without urgent action to turn things around, researchers said. Vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks pose a growing global risk. Increasing numbers of wild-type polio cases have been reported in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and there is a polio outbreak in Papua New Guinea, where less than half of the population is immunised. In 2024, there was a nearly tenfold increase in measles infections recorded in Europe. The measles outbreak in the US reached more than 1,000 confirmed cases in 30 states in May 2025, surpassing the total number of cases in 2024. The new analysis provides updated and extended global, regional and national estimates of annual routine childhood vaccination coverage from 1980 to 2023 in 204 countries and territories, using more than 1,000 data sources. The past 50 years has seen huge progress, the study shows, with a 75% drop in the number of unvaccinated zero-dose children worldwide from 58.8 million in 1980 to 14.7 million in 2019. However, this long-term progress masks recent challenges and substantial disparities. Since 2010, coverage gains slowed and, in some areas of the world, reversed. For example, 21 of 36 high-income countries experienced declines in coverage for at least one of the recommended vaccines – including a 12% decline in first-dose measles vaccination in Argentina, and 8% and 6% declines in third-dose diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (whooping cough) vaccination in Finland and Austria respectively. Persistent health inequalities and the enduring effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are key factors, but vaccine misinformation and hesitancy is the biggest new factor behind the stalling of progress. Lead author Dr Emily Haeuser, of the University of Washington, called for more concerted efforts to tackle vaccine misinformation and hesitancy. 'Successful vaccination programmes are built on understanding and responding to people's beliefs, concerns and expectations,' she said. Helen Bedford, professor of children's health at University College London, who was not involved with the study, said the reasons for declining vaccine uptake were 'numerous and complex'. Action was necessary to tackle increasing social inequity, and misinformation about vaccine safety and necessity, as well as improving public confidence in vaccination programmes, she said. 'Vaccination remains one of our most powerful tools for protecting child health, but its continued success depends on sustained investment, equity, and public trust.'
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Terrifying map reveals US cities where hidden autism toxin is lurking... is YOUR home in a danger zone?
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