New global funding for rubella vaccine
28 November 2011
GAVI, the global alliance on vaccines and immunisation, have decided to open a funding window for the rubella vaccine.
Availability of funding for rubella vaccine will prevent the sight and hearing loss, along with other disabilities at birth, that result from rubella infection in early pregnancy. It gives a much-needed boost to countries' efforts to eliminate both measles and rubella.
It means that 57 countries eligible for support can apply for funding to introduce these vaccines into their national immunisation schedules, with support available from the World Health Organisation.
Congenital Rubella Syndrome remains a major public health problem with an estimated 112 000 cases occurring globally, of which 90,000 are in "GAVI eligible" countries.
While large-scale rubella vaccination during the last decade has enabled the elimination of rubella and CRS in the Western Hemisphere (the Americas) and several European countries, the current burden of CRS in Africa, South-East Asia and the Western Pacific regions is still thought to be high.
Sense's own rubella immunisation project is developing strategies to inform ethnic minority groups in the UK who are particularly vulnerable to rubella infection, to encourage them to take up the MMR immunisation.