Global Vaccine Summit | 05 Jun 2020

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.
• 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.

Source:TH