GAVI International Immunizations Group Agrees to 50 New Deals to Fund Childhood Vaccines in 37 Developing Countries

Instead of spending billions on vaccines [a big money maker for the pharmaceutical industrial complex and a diabolical way for reducing population growth] to 'combat diarrhea' caused by lack of clean water and improper sanitation, the governments of the world, in collusion with multinational corporations and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, should be funding solutions to the clean water and sanitation problems of the poorer nations.

One person dies every ten seconds from water-borne illness, according to Water.org, founded by Academy Award-winning actor Matt Damon and Gary White. Even more heartbreaking is that of the nearly 9,000 daily death rate for water-borne diseases, most are small children.

"Every 15 seconds, a kid somewhere on planet Earth dies because they don't have access to clean water and sanitation," says Matt Damon.

Calling that information "disgusting and unacceptable and unnecessary," he added, "These are issues we've known how to solve here for 100 years in our country ... Just imagine if we cured AIDS tomorrow and in 100 years people were still dying of it, 3 million of them a year. It's just really ridiculous."

By donating $25 on the Water.org website, they could give a child "clean water for life." Damon promised that Water.org would change the fact that 1 billion people do not have clean water and offered to viewers,

"Feel free to join us." [Source]

The Netaid organization says that with just $13 billion a year the basic health and food needs of the world's poorest people could be met.

The number 35,615 is a conservatively low number for the barbarically needless daily deaths the poorest of the poor die. If we were to add the next two leading ways the poorest of the poor die, water borne diseases and AIDS, we would be approaching a daily body count of 50,000 deaths.

Yes, upwards of 50,000 people per day are needlessly dying on Earth. These deaths are dictated by the greed of a very few, and the rest of us are not changing it -- or this ultimate sin wouldn't be happening, now would it? Let us not forget that the vast majority of these needless deaths are of children 5 years of age and under. One person every 2 seconds needlessly dies from starvation, water borne diseases or AIDS. [Source]

We know from his own words (see the video below) that Bill Gates in not interested in saving lives but in reducing the world's population through vaccines and other means (he's also big on genetically modified foods and atmospheric geoengineering). If he really wanted to help the less developed countries, he'd be trying to save lives by spending the funds of his foundation (a tax-free haven for his vast wealth as well as the fortunes of other billionaires) for clean water and sanitation.

Yes, the fix would be that simple, but they really don't want to stop all those deaths. Rather, their goal is to reduce the world's population by 90%.

Vaccines Group Gets Cut-price Rotavirus Shots

April 10, 2012

Reuters - International vaccines group GAVI has struck a deal for bulk buying rotavirus shots from GlaxoSmithKline and Merck which cuts the price by two-thirds and will allow poorer countries access to them at around $5 per course.

The vaccines, GSK's Rotarix and Merck's Rotateq, combat the main cause of diarrhoea - the second-largest killer of children under the age of five worldwide.

Because rotavirus-related diarrhoea kills more than 500,000 children a year, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended in 2009 that all countries should include rotavirus vaccines in national immunization programs, but many developing countries struggle to afford them.

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) said on Tuesday its cut-price deal would allow it "to respond to ever-increasing demand from developing countries" and provide the shots this year for 3 million children in eight poor countries.

By 2016, GAVI said it planned to roll out the vaccines in more than 40 of the world's poorest countries, immunizing more than 70 million children.

Around 95 percent of the contracted supply of 132 million doses will be procured at a cost of $5 per two-dose course, GAVI said in a statement. This is a two-thirds price cut compared to the previous lowest price offered to GAVI of $15 a course.

In the United States, the same vaccine course costs public institutions $177 and private health providers $213.

GAVI is a Geneva-based public-private partnership backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the WHO, the World Bank, UNICEF, international donor governments and others. It funds bulk-buy immunization campaigns for poorer nations that can't afford vaccines at rich-world prices.

Its chief executive Seth Berkley said the deal showed how GAVI's model was working to the benefit of some of the world's most disadvantaged children.

"We strive to make our donors' funds go further so we can help developing countries protect more children against deadly diseases," he said in a statement.

The WHO says vaccination is one of the most cost-effective public health measures. It estimates that 2 to 3 million deaths are averted each year with immunization.

GAVI had previously been struggling to get enough donor funding to sustain its programs, but it got a hefty boost last year when international donors led by Britain and the billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates pledged $4.3 billion to support it.

A spokesman for GSK, which will supply 95 percent of the GAVI contracted doses, said the British drugmaker was glad to be contributing to efforts against preventable diseases.

"Rotavirus vaccine has demonstrated real-world, life-saving impact on reducing deaths," he said. "We have a chance here to collaborate in programs designed to protect millions of children."

Childhood Vaccine Funds Agreed for More Poor Nations

September 27, 2011

Reuters - The GAVI international immunisations group said on Tuesday it had agreed more than 50 new deals to fund potentially life-saving vaccines for children in 37 developing countries.

The Geneva-based Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation said the agreements, which will help provide rotavirus, pneumococcal and other vaccines for children under five, were a big step in the fight against the two leading child killers -- severe diarrhoea and pneumonia.

Rotavirus shots made by various drug firms such as GlaxoSmithKline , Merck and Sanofi-Aventis are part of routine childhood vaccinations in many wealthier nations and recent studies from the United States, Australia, El Salvador and Mexico showed swift falls in the number of children becoming ill with the virus.

In 2009, the World Health Organisation said all countries should include rotavirus shots in national vaccination programmes, but many poorer nations struggle to afford them.

GAVI said its rollout of rotavirus vaccines in Africa had started, in Sudan, and Tuesday's agreements meant funding will now be available for these shots to go to children in 12 more African countries.

GAVI said it had also agreed funding for 18 more countries to introduce pneumococcal vaccines -- 12 of them in Africa -- and for other types of vaccines, including measles, meningitis and pentavalent shots, in several other countries.

Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhoea in children under five, killing more than 500,000 children each year worldwide and causing illness in several million more. Nearly 50 percent of all rotavirus deaths are in Africa.

Pneumococcal disease causes pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis and also kills more than 500,000 children each year worldwide, the vast majority of them in Africa and Asia.

"These new vaccines will prevent millions of children from dying of pneumonia and diarrhoea," said Anthony Lake, executive director of the United Nations children's fund UNICEF.

"It is among the most vulnerable that these vaccines can make the biggest difference, especially if they are combined with better nutrition, sanitation and other critical interventions."

At it latest funding round in June, GAVI -- a public-private partnership set up in 2000 to speed the introduction of vaccines into the world's poorest countries -- won pledges of $4.3 billion from international donors.

Just ahead of that pledging meeting, several leading drugmakers said they were cutting prices on vaccines supplied through GAVI.

Vaccines for the GAVI-funded pneumococcal campaigns are being supplied by drugmakers Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline as part of a so-called advance market commitment deal part-funded by Britain, Canada, Italy, Norway, Russia and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

GAVI chief executive Seth Berkley said the alliance was delivering on its promise to protect more children against life-threatening but preventable diseases.

Since it was launched at the World Economic Forum in 2000, GAVI says it has prevented more than five million future deaths and helped protect 288 million children with vaccines.