Donors need to increase their financial support for immunization and vaccination campaigns to prevent a funding gap that could put the lives of millions of children at risk, according to a newly published report by a U.K.-based health charity.
The Save the Children UK report, dubbed “No Child Born to Die,” says approximately USD17.5 billion per year is needed to meet children and maternal health-related Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
The report urges donors to increase the quantity and quality of health aid they provide to avoid a potential rise in health care costs in developing countries. It also calls on poor counties to increase their own health spending.
Save the Children adds that the international community also needs to address the gap in global immunization campaigns and the estimated shortage of 3.5 million trained health workers in developing countries.
The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization needs to mobilize an additional USD3.7 billion in the next five years to immunize 90 percent of children in the world’s poorest countries, the aid group says in the report. The organization also encourages poor and rich countries alike to remove financial and policy barriers to training more health care workers.
