World's Greatest Vaccine-Preventable Killer of Children

Leaders Fulfill Promise to Combat World's Greatest Vaccine-Preventable Killer of Children

The Finance Ministers of Italy, Canada and Russia, together with the United Kingdom, Norway and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank Group, the GAVI Alliance, UNICEF and WHO, formally activated the implementation phase of the Advance Market Commitment (AMC) pilot project to accelerate introduction of vaccines against pneumococcal diseases in developing countries.

In so doing, donors delivered on their $1.5-billion commitment to adopt the innovative AMC approach to save lives in the world's poorest nations. GAVI estimates that the AMC pneumococcal pilot could prevent more than seven million childhood deaths by 2030, substantially contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal on Child Health (MDG4).