AFRICA:An 80 cent a shot measles immunization programme saved 1.2 million lives in Africa in its first five years, new research shows.
The UN-sponsored Measles Initiative, which was launched in 2001 with the backing of various international donors and Third World governments, has reduced childhood mortality from the disease by 60 per cent worldwide and 75 per cent in Africa.
That is according to data published today in an article in medical journal the Lancet, which hails the initiative as a rare success story.
Andrea Gay, director of children's health at the United Nations Foundation, one of the sponsors of the programme, said Africa used to account for more than 50 per cent of measles deaths worldwide but now it accounted for just over a third.
"That is a huge achievement in Africa where we think things can't be done. This shows they can," she said.
The research found that routine immunization for measles increased from 71 per cent to 77 per cent worldwide between 1999 and 2005 - an increase that may have prevented up to 7.5 million deaths. About 2.3 million of these deaths were averted through the Measles Initiative, which targeted 360 million children mainly in Africa, the study claimed.
It costs less than $1 (77 cent) to vaccinate someone against measles, which is a major killer of malnourished children.
The Measles Initiative, which has spent more than $308 million on vaccinations, has used the campaign as a springboard to promote other health interventions.
Vitamin A supplements and de-worming medicine have been included in vaccination campaigns, along with insecticide-treated beds for malaria prevention. Ms Gay said a number of developing countries were now paying half of the operating costs of the programme, which was "very important for sustainability".
"It's crucial that it becomes part of their budget as the likelihood is that when deaths go to zero, donors will cease to support the programme - because that is what donors do. So we need countries to budget for this."
The World Health Organisation, which is among the other major backers of the initiative, said it was now on target to reach the Millennium Development Goal of reducing measles deaths by 90 per cent between 2000 and 2010. According to the Lancet report, annual fatalities from measles fell worldwide from 873,000 in 1999 to 345,000 in 2005.
In a separate development, Unicef has highlighted the deepening crisis of Aids orphans. A study this week estimated that 15.2 million boys and girls were living without at least one parent because of Aids in 2005.