By Katy Migiro | Fri., September 16, 12:11 PM | Comments ( 0 )
NAIROBI (AlertNet) – Burundi will start vaccinations against pneumonia, the world’s biggest killer of children under five, next week, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) said in a statement on Friday.
It will become the tenth African country to introduce the new pneumococcal vaccine.
Every year, an estimated 16,000 children in Burundi die from pneumococcal disease, the main cause of pneumonia.
“Pneumonia is still killing too many of our children, but with this new vaccine we aim to reverse this tragedy and set our children on course for a healthy future,” said Burundi’s Minister of Health Dr Sabine Ntakarutimana in the statement.
Globally, more than half a million children die every year from pneumococcal disease. An estimated 90 percent of these deaths occur in the developing world.
By 2015, the GAVI Alliance plans to have supported the introduction of these vaccines in more than 40 developing countries.
In recent months, the Central African Republic, Gambia, Cameroon, Benin and Rwanda have also introduced the new pneumococcal vaccine.
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