Gates and Britain pledge €1.6bn to vaccinate poor

BRITAIN and Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates have joined forces to pledge more than half of the €2.6 billion sought to vaccinate nearly 250 million children against preventable diseases.

Prime Minister David Cameron told a donors’ conference in London Britain would contribute €920 million to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), an aid group backed by Gates.

Cameron said the extra funds would help treat 80 million children against pneumonia and diarrhoea, and save 1.4 million lives.

Gates then followed Cameron’s pledge by saying his charitable foundation would commit an additional $1bn (€695m) over five years.

It was expected that by the end of the one-day summit, donations should exceed the $3.7bn (€2.6bn) target.

“Today we come together because we have the chance to save another four million lives in four years,” Cameron said.

“Frankly, the idea of children dying from pneumonia and diarrhoea should be absolutely unthinkable in 2011.

“But for many parents in the developing world it is a devastating reality.”

Announcing his pledge, Gates said: “It’s not every day you give away a billion dollars but for a cause like this it’s exciting to be doing this.”

GAVI aims to immunise 243 million more children and avert four million deaths by 2015.

The group has already vaccinated 288 million children in 19 countries and wants to extend the programme to another 26 countries.

Brazil and Japan donated to GAVI for the first time at the summit. Brazil pledged $20m over 20 years.

Pneumonia and diarrhoea kill three times as many children under the age of five than HIV/AIDS even though vaccines are available. Many developing countries cannot afford the vaccines.

British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline last week agreed that for sales to the world’s poorest nations it would slash 95% off the price of a vaccine for the diarrhoeal disease rotavirus.

Cameron told the conference Britain’s increased contribution to GAVI was in line with his decision to maintain the government’s international aid budget at a time when it was making cuts to public spending in many other areas.

“Some people say we simply can’t afford spending money on overseas aid right now, that we should get our own house in order before worrying about other people’s problems,” Cameron said.

“I think there is a strong moral case for keeping our promises to the world’s poorest and helping them, even when we face challenges at home.

“When you make a promise to the poorest children in the world, you should keep it,” the prime minister added.

Cameron said he wanted to see poor nations become trading partners, not just recipients of aid.