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Vaccines protect communities

© Sanofi Pasteur / Norbert Domy

Protecting communities and the progress we have made

Our members are committed to providing a reliable supply of quality and effective vaccines to protect communities against infectious diseases such as pneumococcal and rotavirus disease and safeguard the progress in child survival made to date.

  • Vaccines have been so successful in curtailing infectious diseases such as measles, diphtheria, and polio, that in many countries few people remember the devastating impact of these previously common illnesses, and
  • No other technology has proven to be as instrumental or cost effective in saving lives and averting illness from infectious diseases.

Building on the impact made to date

Building on the achievements of vaccines over the last 50 years, a new generation of vaccines has been introduced to protect people against diseases which require new thinking to be effectively addressed. These new generation vaccines are already making the same kind of public health impact as their pioneering predecessors, dramatically reducing the burden of pneumococcal disease and rotavirus disease – two of the biggest killers of children – and protecting against cancers caused by HPV (human papilloma virus).

Safeguarding progress

The progress that has been made over the past few decades is remarkable but can easily be reversed if we are complacent. In order to safeguard the gains that have been made, the community is committed to protect the reliable supply of high quality, safe, and effective vaccines and avoid outbreaks of diseases like measles and diphtheria. Our members are also working with key partners to expand immunization programs to deliver vaccines to communities efficiently and effectively.

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Expanding access through partnership

Our partnerships are driven by a collective ambition to increase the availability of high-quality, affordable, and safe vaccines across the world. Our collective efforts with organizations such as Gavi, WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation enable us to expand access to life-saving vaccines and work together towards an aspiration that every person of any age who can be protected through immunization, is protected by vaccines.

Diseases that were virtually eliminated through immunization are re-emerging when coverage levels drop. This was seen in 2014 in the Western Pacific Region, where large measles outbreaks were reported in the Philippines (58,848 cases), China (52,628 cases), and Vietnam (15,033 cases).

99%

decrease in polio cases since 1988

117 countries

have introduced the pneumococcal vaccine by the end of 2014

17.1 million

deaths prevented by measles vaccination between 2000 and 2014

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