Record numbers of lives have been saved by Bill Gates' programme to distribute cut-price vaccines to the poorest children in Africa, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda said at the World Economic Forum on Friday in Davos, Switzerland.
According to figures published Friday by the World Health Organization, an estimated 2.3 million deaths have been prevented since 2000 when the GAVI immunization programme (funded by the Gates Foundation) was launched. As many as 600,000 deaths were prevented in 2006 alone.
The Gates told a press conference that up to 10 million children a year die from illnesses and disease but a quarter of those deaths could be avoided simply through vaccinations.
Bill Gates called vaccines 'a miracle thing,' adding that he hoped the GAVI programme would 'be dramatically bigger in years to come.'
'Certainly over the years we will be adding more vaccines and the number of lives saved should go up dramatically,' he said.
The programme, he said, aimed to force the price of vaccines down as well as make more types available to parts of the world where access historically has been restricted to just six different vaccines compared with up to 20 in the world's richest countries.
GAVI had committed 2.6 billion dollars to support national immunization programmes in more than 70 developing countries since 2000. WHO figures confirmed 28 million more children had been protected against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (whooping cough) in that time.
A total of 138 million children had received vaccines for hepatitis B and yellow fever through the programme, which now has the support of 17 donor governments which has helped secure funding.
'When GAVI started out we were the primary backer but year by year the generosity of governments coming in as donors has been absolutely fantastic,' said Bill Gates.
'There are still many, many children in the world who die of vaccine-preventable diseases, said Melinda Gates. 'I think every one of those deaths is unacceptable.'
According to figures published Friday by the World Health Organization, an estimated 2.3 million deaths have been prevented since 2000 when the GAVI immunization programme (funded by the Gates Foundation) was launched. As many as 600,000 deaths were prevented in 2006 alone.
The Gates told a press conference that up to 10 million children a year die from illnesses and disease but a quarter of those deaths could be avoided simply through vaccinations.
Bill Gates called vaccines 'a miracle thing,' adding that he hoped the GAVI programme would 'be dramatically bigger in years to come.'
'Certainly over the years we will be adding more vaccines and the number of lives saved should go up dramatically,' he said.
The programme, he said, aimed to force the price of vaccines down as well as make more types available to parts of the world where access historically has been restricted to just six different vaccines compared with up to 20 in the world's richest countries.
GAVI had committed 2.6 billion dollars to support national immunization programmes in more than 70 developing countries since 2000. WHO figures confirmed 28 million more children had been protected against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (whooping cough) in that time.
A total of 138 million children had received vaccines for hepatitis B and yellow fever through the programme, which now has the support of 17 donor governments which has helped secure funding.
'When GAVI started out we were the primary backer but year by year the generosity of governments coming in as donors has been absolutely fantastic,' said Bill Gates.
'There are still many, many children in the world who die of vaccine-preventable diseases, said Melinda Gates. 'I think every one of those deaths is unacceptable.'
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