Gates-Backed Aid Group to Invest in HPV Vaccines

Today in Geneva, the board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization announced seven priority health investments it will make from 2009 to 2020. "This strategy will attack some of the world's major killers and gives us a new challenge in our efforts to provide good health to the world's most vulnerable people," said Julian Lob-Levyt, GAVI's executive secretary.

GAVI said it will focus on vaccinating against human papillomavirus (HPV), the main cause of cervical cancer. The new $3.5 billion strategy also prioritizes vaccines against miscarriages or birth defects caused by rubella virus, as well as cholera, typhoid, rabies, meningitis A, and Japanese encephalitis.

"The portfolio ... has the potential to avert approximately 2 million deaths across different age groups and all GAVI countries within 10 years," said the group, which is backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "Moreover, with HPV and rubella vaccines, GAVI would have an opportunity to protect vulnerable women against a serious and fatal disease and congenital anomalies of their newborns."

GAVI already supports vaccination programs that are thought to prevent 2.5 million child deaths annually, including immunizations against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, and measles. These, along with ones for hepatitis B, yellow fever, pneumococcal disease, and rotavirus, will continue alongside the new initiatives.

GAVI supports immunizations in more than 70 countries.

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