Financial challenges of immunization reviewed.

2004 DEC 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Investigators review the financial challenges of immunization programs in a recent issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

"Securing reliable and adequate public funding for prevention services, even those that are considered highly cost effective, often presents a challenge. This has certainly been the case with childhood immunizations in developing countries. Although the traditional childhood vaccines cost relatively little, funding in poor countries is often at risk and subject to the political whims of donors and national governments," scientists writing in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization report.

"With the introduction of newer and more costly vaccines made possible under the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the future financial challenges have become even greater," said Miloud Kaddar and colleagues at the World Health Organization. "Experience so far suggests that choosing to introduce new combination vaccines can significantly increase the costs of national immunization programs. With this experience comes a growing concern about their affordability in the medium term and long term and a ...