Vaccine superheroes to the rescue!
More than 8 million children around the world die each year before their 5th birthday. Two of the biggest killers are pneumonia and diarrhoea — which kill more than AIDS, TB and malaria combined! Here’s the illustrated story of two villains (pneumonia and diarrhoea), two superheroes (vaccines), and why we need your help!
For years, pneumonia and diarrhoea ran rampant across the developing world — Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and South East Asia — killing children and making it difficult for families and communities to stay healthy and prosperous.
Bouts of pneumonia and diarrhoea are bad enough anywhere in the world, but in these regions, a lack of clean water, improper hygiene and poor access to health facilities and treatment contributed to so many children’s deaths from these two diseases.
In the Western world, vaccines were developed to help fight pneumonia and diarrhoea for those who could afford them, but they still weren’t ready for children in the poorest places of the world (who needed vaccines that were suited to environments different than the developed world).
Vaccine manufacturers didn’t really have great incentives to change their vaccines, because many developing countries were too small and too poor to afford to buy the new vaccines or negotiate prices.
In 2000, a new partnership called The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) was formed to help incentivize the development of new vaccines and to improve access to ones on the market. They did this by:
Now, thanks to many donors and the pharmaceutical industry, we have TWO BRAND NEW VACCINES to fight strains of pneumonia and diarrhoea. They’re suitable for children in the developing world, and their prices are lower so they’re more affordable for local governments and donors.
These are exciting new vaccines, but they need help (money!) in getting out to the people who need them. ONE’s excited to launch our new campaign to help raise money for GAVI and awareness of child vaccine programs around the world.
Together, we can help save nearly 4 million lives by 2015!
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About the Blog
The International ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with guest contributions from ONE volunteers, members and allies.
The content of each post and each comment represents the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
21/04/2011 at 3:13 am
Credit for the awesome drawings goes to our ONE coworker Malaka Gharib!
21/04/2011 at 2:17 pm
Hi. I hope you can translate this…
Mi nombre es Ana.Tengo 34 años y vivo en Argentina. Muchas veces uno tiene ganas de ayudar a personas que lo necesitan .Tanta pobreza….le rompe el corazon a cualquiera. Pero me gustaria saber si hay otras maneras de ayudar que donando dinero porque no tengo la posibilidad de hacerlo.
Ojala la respuesta sea si.
Gracias.-
22/04/2011 at 1:05 am
I’ll translate Ana’s comment:
“My name is Ana. I’m 34 and I live in Argentina. Sometimes you really want to help those in need. There’s so much poverty… and it breaks your heart. I want to know if there’s any way I could help that doesn’t involve donating money, because I’m not in the possition to do it,
Hope your answer will be that there is.
Thanks”
Bueno, Ana, debo decirte que has llegado al lugar indicado. Yo también soy de Argentina. Por suerte tengo la posibilidad de conocer a ONE desde hace más de un año y de poder AYUDAR sin tener que dar plata. ONE se encarga de juntarnos a todos los que queremos ayudar. Toma nuestra voz y la usa para hablar por aquellos que no la tienen, por aquellos cuyos gritos de hambre y miseria han sido silenciados hace mucho por los más poderosos. NOSOTROS, los miembros de ONE tenemos la posibilidad de hablar por ellos, de GRITAR por ellos. Tenemos la posibilidad de decirle a los poderosos que NO NOS BANCAMOS MÁS el HAMBRE y la POBREZA.
ONE no pide dinero a sus miembros, a mí nunca me pidieron que ponga ni un centavo.
Espero que mi respuesta te sea de utilidad, y que te animes a convertirte en una ONEr más, y que te unas, junto con nosotros, a la lucha en contra de la pobreza extrema, entre otras cosas.
Desde ya, te mando un abrazo y te agradezco, sólo en mi nombre porque no puedo hablar por los demás (pero se que no soy la única) tu intención de ayudar.
26/04/2011 at 1:56 pm
Hola! Quiero ayudar, comprometerme de mi lugar. Soy de Buenos Aires, Argentina y quisiera saber si puedo unirme a ONE y de qué manera.
Muchas gracias!
28/04/2011 at 10:26 pm
I am so sorry I am feeling more and more ill reading about more and more vaccines. Vaccines are not the answer to the health problems in poor countries. They are only the answer to big pharmaceuticals to make more money. Why don’t we give the poorer countries vitamins and minerals, boost their immune system and they can get over any illness much easier. That is what i do at home and forcing these poor people who already have a compromised immune system to be jabbed with a vaccine full of heavy metals and who knows what else, is scary.
04/05/2011 at 11:05 pm
I agree with Siggi, it seems to me that it would be much easier. But I think people already thought of that, and, for any reason, did not see a way to make this possible.
Imagine: vitamines are not available everywhere, the water is tremendously full of bacteria, and people do not know how to be hygienic.
Every single human in a poor region should be taught how to be hygienic, should be supplied with clean and fresh water and with lots of vitamines to build up their immune system.
This seems impossible but if we stand UNITED as ONE world, we can do it!
we in fact should do this all, because we have a debt to the africans. We took them to slavery, this is a way we might be forgiven…
greetz
06/05/2011 at 8:21 am
i agree with Siggi. if “we” can bring there vaccination, we should be able to bring also vitamines and the now-how* to clean water and learn about how to be hygienic. sure this is easier to say that for somebody having internet access at home, but education should the key.
*http://www.africadev.org.uk/water.htm
thanks to all that try to make a difference!
05/07/2011 at 3:11 am
One of the reasons why there are many people who are suffering from diarrhoea is because of the quality of water that they drink. They do not have clean source of water to drink. I usually travel a lot and i often times buy travelan from http://travelan.com.au/ because i am very prone with bali belly whenever i go out of the country. I hope that government agencies around the world will do their best to secure their citizens clean drinking water because i believe that every country can benefit a lot when their people are in good health.