Mandela warns on child deaths
2002-04-12 12:56
Cape Town - African governments should give priority to saving children's lives in their own countries, former president Nelson Mandela said on Thursday night.
Speaking in Cape Town at a gala dinner of an international
conference on financing vaccines, he said he was proud to serve as board chairperson of the Vaccine Fund, the financial arm of the Global Alliance, which helped fund immunisation in the world's poorest countries.
In less than two years the alliance and the fund has committed
more than $800 million (R9 billion) to 53 countries to pay for newer vaccines
or to help improve immunisation infrastructure.
"I would particularly urge those African ministers who are here
to take the message of the Global Alliance and the fund back to
your countries," he said.
"If we do not make saving children lives a priority in our own
countries, it will be even more difficult to ask the industrialised
world to take on that responsibility for us." Mandela's comments
come after the United Nations Children's Fund warned the world was
experiencing vaccine shortages serious enough to jeopardise
immunisation programmes for children in both developing and
industrialised countries.
Unicef, whose procurement operation fills around 40% of
the global demand for children's vaccines and is the key supplier
of vaccines to the world's poorest countries, said on Thursday it
was seeking an "urgent global response" to prevent what could
become a crisis.
"The shortages affect virtually every category of traditional
vaccine given to children in poor countries," said Unicef executive
director Carol Bellamy.
"Similar shortages are also occurring in the industrialised
world." Bellamy said long-term financial commitments from donors
could end this "perilous erosion" in global production capacity. - Sapa
- SAPA