Hope On A Global Scale

At a time when the global economy is sagging and headlines are filled with reports of conflict and death, it is critical to keep in mind programs working to improve the health of mankind.

Of all the issues we have dealt with at the Institute of Federal Health Care, few seem more globally significant than immunization. Vaccines provide a nucleus around which public health efforts orbit in symbiosis. Vaccines have tremendous ROI in terms of avoided health care costs, and they can relieve or prevent suffering on a massive scale, as numerous studies have demonstrated.

If you want statistics, visit the Sabin Vacccine Institute’s website: www.sabin.org. The Sabin Institute works closely with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to reduce the burden of vaccine-preventable diseases, both by increasing immunization rates and by developing new vaccines. The GAVI Alliance brings together developing countries, donor governments and organizations (including the Gates Foundation) and industry to bring immunization to the poorest parts of the world.

And now, a new organization reports happy news: the potential for a vaccine against dengue within two to three years. According to the Dengue Vaccine Initiative (of which the Sabin Institute is a member), several vaccine candidates are in various stages of advanced development, with clinical trials in progress on five of them.

A three-dose vaccine under development by Sanofi appears especially promising, with predictions that it could be available for widespread use by 2015. Dengue, also known as break-bone fever, kills about 20,000 individuals each year, many of them children.

So, things are happening that can relieve morbidity and mortality on a global scale. Let’s not forget that.