Gordon Brown on Vaccines

As we start 2006, preventable diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis still kill 7 million children a year, and in South Africa half of all 15-year-olds are expected to die from Aids. By frontloading aid and investing an extra $4bn in vaccination now, the path-breaking international finance facility for immunisation could save 5 million lives by 2015, and a life-saving vaccine could soon be available for malaria to save 1 million lives each year.So next month, I will ask the G8 to put the most innovative financial mechanisms at the service of the most innovative medical research. We should create the first mechanism whereby rich countries underwrite the research, development and bulk production of affordable vaccines and treatments. And by reducing the price of drugs and building healthcare systems, we should meet our promise of universal access to HIV/Aids treatments by 2010.If past generations said "If only we had the knowledge, the technology, the medicine and the science to act", today we have no such excuse.