Vaccines Overview

Two New Vaccines to Fight Two of the Top Killers of Children

Childhood vaccines are one of the most cost-effective ways to save lives and prevent disease for a lifetime.  Please join us in supporting investments for two new vaccines that will help stop pneumonia and diarrhea—two of the biggest killers of children in poor countries.

Not only do vaccines help protect against preventable death, they also help significantly reduce the likelihood of future illness and disability.  Vaccines help save health costs by reducing clinic visits and hospitalizations and allowing children and adults to participate in school and work as productive members of society.  Vaccines are often called the “best buy in public health” because they have proven again and again to be cheap, easy to administer and effective.  Supporting vaccines can help dramatically reduce child deaths and give children a healthy start in life.   

Roughly one of every three child deaths—a total of nearly three million each year—is caused by pneumonia or diarrhea; that’s more children’s lives lost than to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Vaccines can prevent two diseases that are not typically fatal in the West from becoming a death sentence to children in the developing world.

Vaccines for the World’s Poorest Countries

Together with its partners, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) has averted an estimated 5.4 million child deaths since 2000 by increasing access to underutilized vaccines in poor countries and incentivizing the development of new vaccines appropriate for the developing world at an affordable price.  Since its launch, GAVI has supported the immunization of more than 288 million children.  This is an important year as GAVI needs additional resources to roll out the two new vaccines to fight the top two killers of children.  

If given sufficient resources, GAVI will make significant advances towards reducing child mortality by immunizing 90 million children with pneumococcal vaccine (to fight against pneumonia), 53 million children with rotavirus vaccine (to fight against diarrhea), and 230 million children against the five deadly diseases covered by a single shot of pentavalent vaccine.  With these vaccines, GAVI expects to reach 243 million children and save the lives of 4 million children by 2015.

ONE’s Vaccines Campaign

ONE is committed to ending extreme poverty and preventable disease and we know child vaccines are one of the most cost-effective ways to save lives and prevent disease for a lifetime. 

Please join us as we work to raise awareness about the importance of child vaccines and build support to ensure vaccines get to the children who need them most.  Beginning this spring and continuing throughout the year, our campaign will focus on the lifesaving impact of child vaccines and urge world leaders to pledge their support for GAVI to save 4 million children’s lives by 2015. 

Vaccines Quick Facts

•    Vaccines have helped to cut childhood deaths by more than half since 1960.
•    Measles deaths declined by 92% in Africa between 2000 and 2008. 
•    Small pox has been eradicated.
•    Polio is endemic in only four countries today, compared to 125 countries in 1988.