In South Sudan, MSF is present in Yida, next to the border with Sudan. This village hosts a camp of refugees who escaped shellings in South Kordofan. MSF set up a small hospital and a clinics in the refugees'camp in Yida. Photograph by James Keogh/Wostok Press
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MSF at the 2012 GAVI Partners Forum

Photograph by James Keogh/Wostok Press
In South Sudan, MSF is present in Yida, next to the border with Sudan. This village hosts a camp of refugees who escaped shellings in South Kordofan. MSF set up a small hospital and a clinics in the refugees'camp in Yida. Photograph by James Keogh/Wostok Press

“There’s no reason children should still be dying of vaccine-preventable diseases. The global vaccines community could be doing a lot better to make sure all babies in developing countries are fully vaccinated against killer diseases. We need vaccines that are easier to use in hard-to-reach places.” Dr Manica Balasegaram, Executive Director, MSF Access Campaign

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is deeply concerned that the current global vaccination strategy is not paying enough attention to reaching the one in five babies born each year that continue to go without the very basic vaccination package. MSF sees the direct effect of the failures in basic vaccination when massive outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases emerge in places where we work. In 2010 in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, MSF vaccinated more than four million people for measles in response to outbreaks that would not be happening if routine immunisation were working well. The global number of babies not fully vaccinated rose from 19 million in 2010 to 22.4 million in 2012—there’s an urgent need to address this situation.

The approach being taken in the vaccines blueprint being launched for the next ten years—the ‘Global Vaccine Action Plan’ and ‘Decade of Vaccines’—does not adequately emphasise the need to strengthen basic immunisation. Developing vaccines that are better adapted to reach children in remote or unstable locations—vaccines that do not require refrigeration, do not require needles, and that can be given in fewer doses—is not being prioritized enough. Better products are needed to alleviate the growing number of un-immunised children. GAVI should play a role in the development of adapted products, but to date, it has not done so.

Additionally, GAVI is not paying enough attention to getting vaccine prices down in its effort to introduce new vaccines, such as for pneumococcal disease and rotavirus. This could have a devastating impact on countries’ immunisation programmes once donor support through GAVI tapers off. Honduras, for example, will face a nearly 1,000% price increase to vaccinate a child with these two new vaccines when the country loses donor funding in 2015. The vaccines blueprint is not making a serious effort to address the issue of high prices.

MSF @ The Partners Forum

Building resilience in fragile states
Dr Myriam Henkens, Medical Coordinator, MSF International
Kibo 3—Thursday 6 December 15:00

The role of technology transfer in sustainable access to vaccine innovation
Dr Manica Balasegaram, Executive Director, MSF Access Campaign (Given on behalf of the GAVI CSO Constituency) 
Kibo 3—Friday 7 December 14:30

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