WHO IVB: Over 700 million children in 49 countries to be protected against measles and rubella.
Rwanda first sub-Saharan African country to introduce measles-rubella vaccine nationwide with GAVI support
Extract
“Kigali, Geneva, New York, Washington: 12 March 2013 – Rwanda’s measles-rubella vaccination campaign, which is being launched today, is the beginning of an effort to vaccinate more than 700 million children under 15 years of age against two disabling and deadly diseases. The combined measles-rubella vaccine will be introduced in 49 countries by 2020 thanks to financial support from the GAVI Alliance. The support builds on the efforts of the Measles & Rubella Initiative (M&RI) that have helped countries to protect 1.1 billion children against measles since 2001. Rwanda, which is already effectively controlling measles, becomes the first sub-Saharan African country to provide measles-rubella vaccine nationwide with GAVI support”…
“…Rwanda has made great strides over the past four years in child survival by introducing vaccines against leading child killers, including pneumonia and diarrhoea,” said Dr Agnes Binagwaho, Rwanda’s Minister of Health. “The introduction of the combined measles-rubella vaccine is one more important step to ensuring that all children in Rwanda receive the full immunization package. In our efforts to eliminate measles, we have raised measles coverage through campaigns and routine immunisation to higher than 95%.” …
vaccines and global health :: ethics and policy 