U.N.: 1.4 Million Children Die Annually of Diseases Due to Lack of Vaccinations

By NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press writer

UNITED NATIONS About 1.4 million children under age 5 die needlessly each year from measles, whooping cough and other diseases that are easily prevented by vaccines, the U.N. children’s agency said in a report Thursday.

At the same time, a top U.N. public health expert warned that a new influenza pandemic could come anytime and claim millions of lives unless officials to take action now to control an epidemic in Asia.

Dr. David Nabarro of the World Health Organization called on governments to take immediate steps to address the threat at a news conference following his appointment as the new U.N. coordinator to lead a global drive to counter a human flu pandemic.

“We expect the next influenza pandemic to come at any time now, and it’s likely to be caused by a mutant of the virus that is currently causing bird flu in Asia,” he said.

Major gains made in vaccinating the world’s children during the 1980s have levelled off and donor nations must understand that progress to bring immunizations to those remaining will take renewed efforts and more cash, said Dr. Peter Salama, UNICEF’s chief of immunizations.

“Everybody thought that we were progressing so well that we would just progress continually,” Salama said. “But in fact that didn’t happen.”

About 130 million children are born each year, and since 1990, about 70 percent have received the immunizations considered most vital. That’s up from some 20 percent under the age of 1 in 1980.

But since then, there has not been great progress in reaching the final 20 percent or 30 percent who need help mainly in poor countries and those are the places that need the most urgent attention, UNICEF said.

Salama said about $1 billion is now being spent on childhood immunization and about $1 billion more is needed to reach a goal set in 2002 of bringing vaccines to at least 90 percent of children under the age of 1 around the world by 2010.

That figure will rise to about $6 billion as new vaccines come to market for killers such as rotavirus, which causes acute diarrhea, and pneumococcal disease, which leads to pneumonia.

A UNICEF report highlighted the sharp divide between vaccinations in rich and poor nations. In 2003, 90 percent of children in industrialized nations had proper immunizations. But coverage rates in west and central Africa are just 52 percent, the report said.

The World Health Organization said the H5N1 strain of bird flu has swept through poultry populations in Asia since 2003, infecting humans and killing at least 65 people, mostly poultry workers, and resulting in the deaths of tens of millions of birds. The virus does not pass from person to person easily, but experts believe this could change if the virus mutates.