February 3, 2005 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Seattle, has donated $750-million to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, which the foundation helped create in 2000 to increase the number of children in the developing world who get vaccinated.
The foundation previously had spent $754-million on such immunization efforts.
Altogether, projects to vaccinate children account for about a third of the amount the foundation has spent in the past five years.
The Global Alliance also received another grant this week, from the government of Norway, which pledged $290-million. That brings Norway’s total contributions to $440-million, making it the organization’s second-largest supporter after the Gates fund.
Eight other countries, the European Union, and private donors have given about $430-million to support the Global Alliance.
In announcing the grant, Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, urged wealthy nations to increase their contributions to global immunization programs.
“Today’s commitments are only a down payment,” he said. “Rich countries can and should increase immunization funding to give children in developing countries a better shot at a healthy life.”
Getting more money for children’s immunization programs in poor nations is a priority of international institutions such as the World Health Organization, which says that as much as $12-billion more will be needed by 2015 to immunize children in the poorest countries.
The death toll from diseases that could be prevented by vaccines, such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, and measles, was estimated to be about 2.1 million people in 2002.
Mr. Gates called the foundation’s support of children’s immunization “the best investment we’ve ever made.”
The Gates Foundation estimates that in the past five years, the Global Alliance has helped prevent more than 670,000 deaths.
