Johns Hopkins awarded $30 million to develop, introduce pneumococcal vaccine.

2003 MAR 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is receiving $30 million from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and its financing arm, the Vaccine Fund, to accelerate the development and use of life-saving pneumococcal vaccines for children in the world's poorest countries.

Through this public health effort, the school and its partners hope to prevent the deaths of nearly 2.2 million children between 2006 and 2020.

According to the World Health Organization, pneumococcal infections kill more than 1 million children each year, which is the same number that die from malaria. Most are infants and young children who die from pneumonia and meningitis. Immunizations are urgently needed because in many countries, up to 90% of pneumococcal strains are resistant to first-line antibiotics. Vaccines tailored to prevent the strains that are most prevalent in developing countries are in advanced stages of large-scale testing in Africa and Asia and should be available by 2006.

"In the past, life-saving vaccines have been slow to reach the children who need them the most. Nearly 15 years after Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine was introduced in the United States and other rich countries, less than 10% of the children in the world's poorest countries receive this vaccine," explained Orin Levine, PhD, an associate with the school's department of international health. "Our aim is to work with national and international partners to accelerate this process by 10 years or more," said Levine.

The Pneumococcal Accelerated Development and Introduction Plan (ADIP) team at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, directed by Levine, will bring together experts from the public and private sectors. The team will coordinate efforts to address ...