UK takes lead as donors beat vaccine aid target

Donors have pledged £2.6 billion to help vaccinate the world’s poorest children against killer diseases, with Britain leading the way.

David Cameron said Britain would give an extra £814 million to programmes run by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), a move that will save a child’s life every two minutes.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates followed the Prime Minister’s announcement, which won an ovation from an audience of world leaders, charities and philanthropists, with a promise of his own to give £600 million over five years.

In all, donors pledged £2.6 billion on Monday to fund vaccination programmes against diseases such as diarrhoea and pneumonia, more than GAVI’s £2.3 billion target.

Mr Cameron told the Britain “will play its full part” in ending the “cruel lottery” that sees children born in poor countries condemned to death due to lack of immunisation against preventable diseases like pneumonia and diarrhoea.

He said: “In addition to our existing support for Gavi, we will provide £814m of new funding up to 2015. This will help vaccinate over 80 million children and save 1.4 million lives.

“That is one child vaccinated every two seconds for five years. That is one child’s life saved every two minutes. That is what the money that the British taxpayer is putting in will get.”

Britain has already vaccinated 55 million children around the world since 2000, and had already made a commitment to giving £680m to GAVI by 2015.

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said: “We had a look when we came into Government at all the different ways that Britain does development with British taxpayer funds.

“And one of the very best was the Global Alliance of Vaccines and Immunisation, where effectively you can vaccinate a kid in the poor world for the price of a cup of coffee against all five of the killer diseases which mean so many of these children die before the age of five.”

Mr Mitchell also defended Britain’s aid budget, which despite cuts across Whitehall has increased, prompting vocal criticism from the Tory backbenches.

Giving away his wealth
Last year Bill Gates, his wife Melinda, and Warren Buffett launched The Giving Pledge, which proclaims its aim "to invite the wealthiest individuals and families in America to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to the philanthropic causes and charitable organisations of their choice". Supporters include Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, and other stars in the US technology firmament.

Read more: Bill Gates - capitalist to philanthropist

He said it was not only “morally right” but in the UK’s national interests to continue to fund development projects around the world.

He added: “We don’t protect our security only by tanks and guns but also by training the police in Afghanistan, getting girls into school in the Horn of Africa and building up government structures in the Middle East.”

It’s the greatest thing that ever happened in human health. Bill Gates

Mr Gates said a malaria vaccine could be just a few years away, while polio could follow smallpox in being eradicated thanks to the success of its vaccine. Vaccines were “magic”, he said.

“They are very inexpensive, they can protect you for your entire life, so diseases like smallpox that used to kill millions are completely gone because of the vaccine. It’s the greatest thing that ever happened in human health. We need to get them out to people and invent some more.”

The conference comes after a number of pharmaceutical giants including GSK pledged to slash the prices of some vaccines to countries in the developing world.