Ten million additional lives could be saved through child and maternal immunization between 2006-2015 at an average annual cost of US$ 1 billion, according to a new study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. The estimated US$ 2.5 billion current annual spending on immunization in the poorest countries would need to increase to US$ 3.5 billion by 2010 and US$ 4 billion by 2015 to reach this goal.

A study presented at the GAVI Partners' Meeting, which took place in New Delhi from 7-9 December, 2005 covers the potential impact that immunization can have over the next decade and outlines the financing requirements needed to make this a reality in developing countries.

The new study follows on the WHO/UNICEF Global Immunization Vision and Strategy, adopted. The document lays out a number of goals such as raising immunization coverage levels to 90 per cent, and reducing vaccine-preventable illness and deaths by two-thirds by 2015. It provides strategies that countries and global immunization partners may use to reach such goals.

If countries achieve these goals, by 2015, more than 70 million children who live in the world’s poorest countries will receive each year life-saving vaccines against the diseases such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, rubella, yellow fever, haemophilus influenza type B, hepatitis B, polio, rotavirus, pneumococcus, meningococcus, and Japanese encephalitis.

The study examined the cost, financing and impact of immunization programmes in the 72 poorest countries, which have a Gross National Income of less than US$ 1000 per year. The estimated total price tag for immunization activities in 2006-2015 in these countries is US$ 35 billion.

One third of the US $35 billion will be spent on vaccines. The total amount spent on vaccines will rise from about US$ 350 million in 2005 to nearly US$ 1.5 billion per year by 2015, as coverage is expanded with underused vaccines, and new vaccines are introduced. The remaining funds will be spent on immunization delivery systems including shared costs that strengthen the overall health system to improve immunization coverage in the 72 GAVI supported countries. The objective is to reach 90 per cent coverage by 2015 from less than 70 per cent today. US$ 2.2 billion will go towards immunization campaigns, such as those for polio, measles and tetanus.

In addition to providing protection to children from vaccine-preventable diseases, immunization programmes also serve as a platform to strengthen health systems and to deliver other life-saving interventions such as those against malnutrition, malaria and intestinal worms.