VOA标准英语2012--Immunization Week Highlights Efforts to Save Lives Worldwide

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Haiti, Nigeria, Ghana -- 180 countries in all -- stepped up their immunization drives against deadly childhood infections to mark World Immunization Week. 

The GAVI Alliance -- a Geneva based public-private partnership¹ aimed at improving health in poor countries -- rolled out new vaccination² campaigns in many countries against killer³ childhood infections such as diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles⁴, mumps⁵ and rubella.

Spokesman Jonathan Stern says the GAVI Alliance has helped to vaccinate⁶ 326 million children around the world since 2000, a campaign that has saved about five and a half million lives.

“Our goal for 2015 is to immunize an additional quarter billion people and this would save nearly another 4 million lives. And so for GAVI, the real challenge is fulfilling that promise -- that is, to immunize a quarter billion people,” Stern said.

Experts say the current immunization campaign provides a unique opportunity to highlight the powerful impact vaccines⁸ can have in reducing mortality and illness. 

“The leading killers⁹ of children in the world now are diarrheal disease caused by rotavirus infection or respiratory diseases caused by pneumococcal pneumonia¹⁰. So for both those killer diseases, we have safe and affordable¹¹ vaccine⁷ we need to greatly expand their use,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute. He says vaccines have made it possible to eradicate¹² smallpox¹³ and other diseases, but their primary value is that they provide an extremely cost-effective way to prevent and control fatal or disabling diseases such as polio or measles.

“When we are talking about saving lives and reducing morbidity¹⁴ and mortality from infectious and neglected diseases our first goal is generally not eradication¹⁵. That’s a nice target but one which is still decades away,” he said.

Researchers are hopeful an effective malaria¹⁶ vaccine will be ready soon, and in the next few years, a vaccine against tuberculosis¹⁷. Hotez is confident these new vaccines -- along with new combination drugs and aggressive vector control strategies -- will help to reduce the terrible human costs of preventable and treatable diseases. 

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