Gavi Board approves ambitious package to tackle highly-infectious diseases

Under the new package, the Vaccine Alliance’s support for measles and rubella vaccination between 2016 and 2020 will rise from $ 600 million to around $ 820 million

A new package of support for measles and rubella immunisation, approved by the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, will contribute towards saving more than a million lives. The decision marks a significant step forward in the approach to tackling measles and rubella in developing countries.

Gavi’s revised strategy will help consolidate the currently fragmented approach to tackling measles in developing countries, underpinned by strong routine immunisation programmes with high coverage. This will put countries firmly on the road towards controlling the disease. They will also be able to take advantage of children’s visits to health facilities for measles vaccinations to increase coverage rates of other vaccines.

Gavi will support periodic, data-driven measles and rubella campaigns to ensure children who have not been reached through routine immunisation are protected, as well as supporting parts of the Measles & Rubella Initiative’s (M&RI) work to tackle any outbreaks. Under the new approach, these campaigns will be better planned and synchronised with other immunisation activities and be more targeted at the hardest to reach children. They will also be independently monitored.

Countries will be required to have a five-year rolling measles and rubella plan, as part of their long term routine immunisation plans, which will be updated annually.

“Countries cannot begin to hope to eliminate measles until they get epidemics under control,” said Dagfinn Høybråten, Chair, Gavi Board, “The package of support we have agreed on today will save lives and give developing countries a golden opportunity to reform how they protect their children against measles.”

Measles vaccination in developing countries currently involves a range of strategies, with a heavy reliance on large-scale immunisation campaigns. Coordinated by M&RI, these, together with global increases in routine measles coverage, have been successful in driving down the numbers of deaths caused by measles – from more than half a million in 2000 to 114,900 in 2014. However, the Global Vaccine Action Plan target for measles to be eliminated from four WHO regions by the end of 2015 is significantly off track and highly unlikely to be achieved.

Under the new package, the Vaccine Alliance’s support for measles and rubella vaccination between 2016 and 2020 will rise from $ 600 million to around $ 820 million. Countries will begin to pay a co-financing share for routine measles-rubella vaccines or second dose of measles – a crucial step in ensuring long-term financial sustainability of their programmes. Long-term planning and budgeting will be a crucial part of countries’ rolling five-year measles and rubella plans.

The Board also approved a new strategy for Gavi’s engagement with India, goal-level indicators for Gavi’s 2016-2020 strategy, and a new framework for Alliance partner engagement.

Board members also paid tribute to outgoing Board Chair Dagfinn Høybråten. The Board welcomed former Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who will take over as Board Chair from January 2016, and joined the meeting as an observer.