by Tom Moore
Jokes aside, many of us remember reading in the news about
the breakout of measles at Disneyland in early 2015. I was working at a primary
care clinic in Colorado at the time of the breakout and watching several of our
patients rushing in with kids in arm, demanding vaccinations. ‘Why aren’t your
kids vaccinated already?’ is all that I wanted to say. I knew the answer
already though. Measles is not an imminent threat in the United States (unless
you’re going to Disneyland apparently). Measles is a threat to many other parts
of the world though. If people understand the dangers of these diseases then
perhaps the general consensus would be for vaccinations. Fortunately (or
unfortunately depending on how you view it), the general population of the
United States and many other developed countries, it’s citizens have the choice
to vaccinate or not to vaccinate. However, that is not even a question for many
people of developing countries. What is being done about this?
During his lecture, Dr. Chris Woods discussed the efforts being made to give the rest of the world access to vaccines for diseases such as measles and pneumococcal. There are many organizations public and private that are working toward the spread of vaccinations and eradication of disease. This includes research, development, and distribution of vaccines. What are some of these organizations you may ask? Meet GAVI The Vaccine Alliance.
Funded through the Gates
foundation and the desire to bring vaccinations to the children of the world,
an international immunization organisation was born. If you would like to know
what GAVI is involved with or the efforts they have made, you can simply go to
their website and they provide everything from the countries they are
contributing, the progress reports for each year, and even the goals set for
the following years to come.
Recently in March 2015, the
CEO of GAVI, Dr. Seth Berkley, spoke at a TED conference and discussed the
market realities of vaccinations. Research, development, and distribution of
vaccinations are risky financial decisions for pharmaceutical companies and
governments. There are even diseases that have limited vaccination research and
trial because of undesired financial marketing. For more about Dr. Berkley's TED
talk you can click on the link below:
Today we often hear the
question in developed countries, “To vaccinate or not to vaccinate?” This is
not a question that developing countries have the luxury of making, because
many people do not have access to vaccines. Fortunately, there are
organizations such as GAVI that are making it possible for people in the whole
world to have access to vaccines.
