Fund Launches Southeast Asia Child Immunization Campaign In Cambodia.(Vaccine Fund)

2001 SEP 19 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

The Vaccine Fund - the global $1.8 billion initiative to fund immunization in the world's 74-poorest countries - has launched a massive, five-year effort to increase access to immunization for children throughout Southeast Asia.

Leaders of the global vaccination campaign were joined by Cambodian government officials at the Poh Mean Chey Health Center in Siem Reap, Cambodia, where they witnessed the historic beginning of a campaign that is expected to affect the lives of millions of children throughout the region.

In collaboration with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and the Cambodian Ministry of Health, The Vaccine Fund handed over its first grant of vaccines in Southeast Asia. The Fund's initial investment in Cambodia of US$296,000 was used to purchase combination hepatitis B-diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (HepB-DTP) vaccines.

"With this trip, The Vaccine Fund begins fulfilling the promise of longer, healthier lives for impoverished children throughout Southeast Asia," said Jacques-Francois Martin, president of The Vaccine Fund.

Martin was joined in Siem Reap by GAVI Chairwoman and UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy and United States Congressman Jim Kolbe. After presenting the first shipment of the new combination HepB-DTP vaccine to Siem Reap Governor Chap Nhalyvoud and Cambodian Minister of Health Hong Sun Huot, the delegation witnessed the beginning of the Southeast Asia campaign as children received the first inoculation.

Cambodia is the second poorest country in Southeast Asia, with an annual GDP per capita of only $260. According to UNICEF, 8.6% of Cambodian children die before reaching their first birthday, and roughly 44,000 children under the age of five die each year. According to UNICEF and the World Health Organization, only 64% of Cambodia's children have been immunized against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis - leaving fully a third without the benefit of basic vaccines which parents of children in industrialized nations take for granted.