Posted by AuntieMel on September 14, 2005, at 10:23:56
In reply to Vaccine plan 'will save millions', posted by Nickengland on September 9, 2005, at 19:31:57
Interesting. I was in your time zone last week and was discussing this very story.
The whole thing seems so expensive! 4bn USD to provide vaccines for 10 million kids works out to, what, $400 per kid?
But - according to the Iffim web site, it is 5 million kids lives to be saved and 5 million "future adult lives" whatever that is.
Why so much? Is most of it interest? Probably.
But besides the money, there are other things that make me nervous.
Iffim says that one "advantage" of frontloading the money is to "focus on new, under-used and newly licensed vaccines." Does this mean that poor countries are to be our test cases?
http://www.iffim.com/01_new_vaccines.html
They also say that providing the vaccine gives them more access to the kids and "can be used to deliver other interventions such as vitamin A and insecticide-treated bednets." <I'll take my bednet without the insecticide, thank you>
http://www.iffim.com/01_advantages.html
As much as I hate to admit it, I'm with the US govt on this one. The CDC has been for years going into poor countries and passing out vaccines - and teaching village people how to administer them. It seems to me to be a more efficient way to get coverage.
poster:AuntieMel
thread:552882
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20050728/msgs/554968.html