Social Justice
Global Vaccine Summit
- 05 Jun 2020
- 4 min read
Why in News
Recently, the Prime Minister of India addressed the virtual Global Vaccine Summit.
- The Summit was hosted by the United Kingdom (UK). Almost 50 countries including the business leaders, UN agencies, civil society, government ministers, Heads of State and country leaders participated in the Summit.
Key Points
- Purpose:
- The Summit was intended to urge nations around the world to pledge funding for vaccinations to protect the world from future outbreaks of infectious diseases.
- The Summit was aimed at raising USD 7.4 million to immunise a further 300 million children in the world's poorest countries by 2025.
- India’s Contribution:
- India has pledged USD 15-million as India's contribution to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI).
- GAVI is an international organisation which brings together public and private sectors to create equal access to vaccines for children.
- India had also mentioned that it has shared its stocks of medicines with over 120 countries in the wake of the pandemic.
- India has pledged USD 15-million as India's contribution to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI).
- The Status of Vaccination in India:
- India is the world’s foremost producer of vaccines and contributes to the immunisation of about 60% of the world’s children.
- India has also added six vaccines to its Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) to expand protection of vaccination in the country.
- Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) was launched by the government in 1985, to prevent mortality and morbidity in children and pregnant women against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases.
- Under UIP free of cost vaccination is provided against twelve vaccine-preventable diseases i.e. Tuberculosis, Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Polio, Hepatitis B, Pneumonia and Meningitis due to Haemophilus Influenzae type b (Hib), Measles, Rubella, Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Rotavirus diarrhoea.
- The Country has also digitised the vaccine supply chain and an electronic intelligence network has been developed to monitor the integrity of the cold chain.
- But, recently the report released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) observed the disruption of the Global Vaccination Programme in the country in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Way Forward
- The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the limitations of global cooperation and that for the first time in recent history, the human kind faces a clear common enemy.
- But GAVI is not just a global alliance but also a symbol of international solidarity. Thus, the whole world needs to stand together to come out of the pandemic.
- There is an urgent need to focus upon the Global Vaccine Action Plan 2011-2020 that is a framework to prevent millions of deaths by 2020 through more equitable access to existing vaccines for people in all communities.
- It is equally important for the countries to give importance to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 i.e. Good Health and Well being.
- There is a need for an immediate action plan to restart the vaccination programmes through better health infrastructure and medical equipment during the corona crisis.