Immunization rates hit record high in developing countries

Launched in 2000 at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the GAVI Alliance (formerly known as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization) is a public-private partnership focused on increasing children's access to vaccines in poor countries. 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 2.3 million early deaths will have been prevented as a result of support by GAVI up to the end of 2006. 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.
New data from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that the GAVI Alliance has brought immunization rates to record highs in poor countries.

The WHO data indicates that immunizations in 2006 alone prevented 600,000 future deaths.