November 28, 2007 – Cape Town, South Africa. The GAVI Alliance and partners announced a successful first year for the International Financial Facility for Immunization (IFFIm) in raising the target of US$1 billion after the first bonds were issued in November, 2006. Of the first US$1 billion, US$ 995 million is being spent on immunization and health programs; US$ 912 million of this will be spent in 2007 in 43 of the world’s poorest countries. An anticipated total IFFIm funding of up to US$ 4 billion is expected to help prevent 10 million child and adult deaths between 2006 and 2015.

“The investment made in children’s lives by IFFIm bondholders and those governments that have backed those bonds is extraordinary,” remarked GAVI Fund Board Chair Graça Machel. “Our deepest appreciation goes to the personal conviction and drive of the truly committed and visionary group of people who made this life-saving contribution happen.”
Since its successful bond launch IFFIm has been widely recognized for its innovative character. Its awards include the 2007 Sustainable Deal of the Year in the Financial Times Sustainable Banking Awards.

To learn more about GAVI’s IFFIm-supported results, download the IFFIm Update #2 at:
http://www.gavialliance.org/resources/IFFIm_Update2_en.pdf
www.iff-immunisation.org

Now available in the on-line edition of the journal, Lancet Infectious Diseases, a review paper, “The evidence for using conjugate vaccines to protect HIV-infected children against pneumococcal disease,” indicates that PCV should be considered an important complement to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which has brought marked improvements to morbidity and mortality in HIV-infected people. The study recommends vaccination of all infants in areas with high rates of HIV infection.

The expert review, authored by seven leading experts in pneumococcal disease and HIV medicine, based in the US and Africa, summarizes available data on the burden of pneumococcal disease and the safety and efficacy of pneumococcal vaccination in HIV infected children. The review found:

• HIV increased the risk of pneumococcal disease in HIV infected as compared with uninfected children (studies found it to be as high as 43-fold)
• The serotypes, or strains, of the bacteria included in the currently licensed, and near-licensed vaccines, include the majority of the serotypes that cause invasive pneumococcal disease in HIV-infected children and adults
• Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine protects against pneumonia and invasive pneumococcal disease when given to HIV infected infants

To read the article summary, click here.
To read PneumoADIP’s press release about this review paper, click here.

Lead author of the review paper, Dr Sandra Bliss, spoke with BBC World’s Network Africa program about the potential of pneumococcal vaccines in improving the lives of children infected with HIV who are at higher risk of dying from pneumococcal disease. Efforts to deliver these life-saving vaccines to children in Africa and Asia are underway spearheaded by donor commitments of $1.5 billion for pneumococcal vaccines plus $200 million by the GAVI Alliance for pneumococcal and rota vaccines. To listen to her 3-minute interview, click here, click on the 4:30 edition and listen to time frame 21:51 to 24:51

The Meningitis Research Foundation held its two day international conference, Meningitis and Septicemia in Adults and Children, in London on 7 & 8 November 2007.

Over 250 delegates from around the world attended. PneumoADIP’s Dr Orin Levine chaired the session entitled Prospects for defeating meningitis in developing countries and PneumoADIP’s Dr Kate O’Brien presented on WHO global burden of Hib and pneumococcal disease in children.

PneumoADIP also had several posters on display at the conference and a stand which attracted the interest of delegates. Over 90 delegates completed the PneumoADIP questionnaire and interestingly:

• In line with the true burden of disease, the largest group of respondents (39 per cent) recognized pneumonia to be the infectious disease which kills the most children worldwide
• Surprisingly close to a third of respondents (31 per cent) still consider the cost of vaccines to be the single biggest challenge to making vaccines available in the developing world

Respondents’ answers demonstrate that awareness of pneumonia as a global killer is high among this audience; however there is still work to be done to address the perception of cost being a barrier to vaccine introduction.

For further information on the conference please visit http://www.meningitis.org/health-professionals/2007-conference

A briefing on Advance Market Commitments: Innovative Financing for Life-Saving Vaccines was held at the US senate in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, October 31.

The Vaccines for the Future Act, sponsored by Sen. Richard Lugar and co-sponsored by Sen. Inouye was the subject of the breakfast briefing, which was moderated by President of PATH Christopher Elias. The Act focuses on Advance Market Commitments (AMCs) and how this mechanism is working to bring vaccines to children around the world. In his introduction, Senator Lugar spoke of the importance of the US showing leadership in the innovative financing of vaccines and encouraging others, including the US, to contribute. He reiterated his commitment to working with the foreign relations committee in pushing through the Vaccines for the Future Act to this end.

Alice Albright of the GAVI Alliance further explained AMCs as a solution to the “market-driven tragedy” of vaccines taking decades to reach the world’s poorest children and the underinvestment in R&D and health systems in developing countries. Dr Orin Levine, Executive Director of PneumoADIP, discussed the burden of pneumococcal disease, highlighting that pneumonia is the world’s number one killer of children. He pointed out that pneumococcal disease will not go away on its own. HIV increases the risk of pneumococcal disease 20-40 fold, and a pandemic of influenza is likely to be followed by large increases in the occurrence of pneumococcal pneumonia, a common sequelae to influenza illness. Together these threats mean that swift prevention efforts which include new vaccines are urgently needed. Dr Samba Sow, Coordinator for the Center for Vaccine Development, Mali, also shared his first-hand experiences with treating children in a typical African setting. He cited the difficulties in getting early, adequate treatment that make prevention, and especially prevention by vaccination, so critical.

The briefing was very well attended by members of civil societies, industry, the media and government.

For more information about the Advance Market Commitment, visit www.vaccineamc.org

GAVI’s PneumoADIP and the Hib Initiative hosted their first Child Pneumonia Prevention Africa Regional Advocacy Workshop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, October 23-25, 2007. Twenty-one prominent child health experts from eight African countries: Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania, took part in the event.

Participants included pediatricians, child health researchers, and representatives from Ministries of Health. The three-day workshop was designed by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (CCP).

This pilot workshop was designed so that participants return home with improved advocacy skills to help engage key audiences in efforts to help raise awareness of and take action against pneumonia. Response from the participants was highly positive and plans to continue with similar workshops in other global regions are underway.

Participants at the first Child Pneumonia Prevention Africa Regional Advocacy Workshop, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Photo credit: Michelle Moncrieffe-Foreman

Dr. Michel Nyembwe Kalala, Microbiologist, Expanded Program on Immunization, Democratic Republic of Congo and Prof. Adegoke Falade, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, at the workshop in Tanzania

This month’s issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene highlights important findings from a surveillance site sponsored by PneumoADIP and is accompanied by an editorial from experts at CDC. In Kamalapur, Bangladesh, an urban slum in southeast Dhaka, Abdullah Brooks and colleagues conducted active population-based surveillance from April 2004 to March 2006. The study estimated the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD), identified the serotypes causing disease locally, and measured antimicrobial resistance. This study was able to show that the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease in this south Asian setting was similar to that observed in African studies, including the Gambia and Kenya. Based on the expected efficacy of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, the authors predict that routine vaccination in Bangladesh could prevent over 1 million pneumonia episodes per year. Until this study, there were very few high quality studies of the incidence of pneumococcal disease from South Asia. This study helps improve estimates of the preventable disease burden, which may aid decision makers to prioritize the introduction of pneumococcal vaccines. Brooks et al. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. Nov 2007; 77(5): 795-801. Flannery and Whitney. Am.J. Trop. Med Hyg Nov 2007; 77(5): 793-794.

December 11-14, 2007 – AFRO Task Force on Immunization in Madagascar

December 13-14, 2007 – The First Symposium on Pneumococcal Vaccination in the Asia-Pacific Regions in Seoul, Korea

June 8-12, 2008 – ISPPD6 (6th International Symposium on Pneumococci & Pneumococcal Diseases) in Reykjavik, Iceland. Abstracts are due by January 15th. Don’t miss this opportunity to participate in the major symposium on pneumococcal disease in 2008.