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May 29, 2002
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Zimbabwe: Worldwide Shortage of Vaccines Looms"
Africa News Service (www.allafrica.com) (05/28/02)
According to Zimbabwe's deputy minister of Health and Child Welfare, David Parirenyatwa, a shortage of vaccines around the world means that Zimbabwe has vaccines enough to last until about the end of 2002, as a number of small drug makers are closing and big manufacturers are adjusting how they produce certain treatments. Parirenyatwa, who recently attended a World Health Assembly in Geneva, also noted that "the big companies are now working towards coming up with one drug for all the six child killer diseases, and it's only sophisticated big companies that can be able to do that." A recent report from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) concluded that 1.8 million deaths occur annually from conditions that vaccines could prevent, and 25 percent of the children born every year do not receive vaccinations; but GAVI and the Vaccine Fund have been working to give poor nations vaccines for hepatitis B, which kills hundreds of thousands annually, and backing for vaccination initiatives. The Vaccine Fund, now with resources worth nearly $1 billion, has offered awards to national government health authorities who applied and demonstrated working interagency coordination committees, long-term immunization plans, and review of services.
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