GAVI donates over 100,000 children’s vaccines

The Gavi Alliance, a global partnership dedicated to improving world health by ensuring access to immunisation in developing nations, Sunday, donated 128,500 doses of the rotavirus vaccine that is administered to children for the prevention of diarrhoea.It is the first time Rwanda is using this vaccine that is expected to significantly reduce the mortality rate of children who die as a result of diarrhoea.Diarrhoea accounts for 19 per cent of all deaths for children under the age of five and is a major contributor to child mortality in Rwanda.Receiving the vaccines at Kigali International Airport on Saturday, the Minister of Health, Dr Agnes Binagwagho, said that having the vaccines was a very major achievement.“This was a missing link yet diarrhoea is a major killer of children. Over 100,000, children preferably below the age of one, will benefit from this vaccine,” she said.She observed that the vaccine is already under use in Western countries where it has proved to be very effective though very expensive; highlighting that Rwanda will now be able to achieve or even surpass Millennium Development Goals, giving universal vaccination to all the children.Maurice Gatera, the head of vaccine preventable diseases in the Ministry of Health, said over $2 million was spent on purchasing the vaccines.He said the vaccine is likely to lower the mortality rate of children under five by 80 percent.“The next consignment of the vaccine will be brought in July. We are positive that the number of children who die as a result of diarrhoea is going to drastically reduce,” Gatera said.According to the Demographic Health Survey Report of 2010, 90 percent of Rwandan children are immunised against preventable diseases.During the last week of March this year, UNICEF also delivered 111 vaccine storage refrigerators to the ministry in preparation of the rotavirus vaccine.Child mortality has dropped radically from 152 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2005 to 76 in 2010 and the number of children and their families living in poverty has decreased from 56% on 2005 to 44% in 2010.

National

GAVI donates over 100,000 children’s vaccines