Letter to the Editor
New rotavirus vaccine for diarrhoea reaches Rwanda
More than 3000 Rwandan children die every year from diarrhoea. But health officials say that’s about to change with the introduction of the rotavirus vaccine. Rwanda is the latest in a growing num- ber of African countries to receive the vaccine.
It is estimated that worldwide more than 1200 children die each day from rotavirus infection. Almost all of them are in developing countries. ‘Rotavirus is the leading cause of diar- rhoea. In fact, in Africa, 40% of children who are hospitalised for diarrhoea have rotavirus. And therefore it’s a major killer causing a lot of the child mortality that still exists on the continent,’ said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance, a Geneva-based public-private health partnership. ‘Rwanda of course is a country that has enormous attention to public health. It’s done a very good job. They have an immunisation rate that’s greater than 95%. But they still have children that die of diarrhoea and particularly rotavi- rus. The expectation is that about 3500
H1N1 swine flu may have killed 15 times more than
first stated The swine flu virus, H1N1, may have killed 15 times the number of people counted by the World Health Organi- zation, according to a new study. And unlike the seasonal flu, the H1N1 pan- demic struck down mostly young peo- ple, many living in Africa and Southeast Asia.
Beginning in 2009, the virus swept the globe, and WHO counted 18500 swine flu deaths that had been con- firmed by laboratory tests. But, accord- ing to new estimates from researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus probably killed between 105700 and 400000 people around the world in its first year alone; an additional 46000 to 179000 people possibly died of cardiovascular compli- cations from the virus.
Although a wide gap in death rates this is not unusual. The numbers of flu
July 2012
Rwandan children die every year from rotavirus diseases, accounting for close to 10% of all the under-5 deaths,’ he said, adding that virtually all of those deaths can be prevented. ‘We’re in the process of trying to get this out to all of the countries. So since 2006, 28 GAVI eligible countries have been approved to receive it. And so we’re trying to scale-up even more than that, although obviously it takes time to get it out to all the countries and some are more prepared than oth- ers,’ he said.
Dr Berkley is the founder and former head of IAVI, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. He said he foresees the day when an HIV vaccine will be- come part of routine immunisations. The second biggest killer of children under 5 is pneumonia. Dr Berkley says pneumococcal vaccine is rolling out even faster than the rotavirus vaccine. Rwanda has already made it part of its immunisation programe and was one of the first developing countries to do so.
deaths confirmed by lab tests usually understate how many people actually died from the virus, simply because most doctors around the world don't have the time or the resources to test their patients for the virus and report cases to health authorities. The prob- lem is greater in countries with few medical resources. The study, published in the Lancet medical journal is the first attempt to provide a global estimate of how many deaths actually occurred during the first year of the swine flu pandemic. Researchers were more surprised by
who the virus targeted. According to the CDC analysis, 80% of deaths from the swine flu pandemic were of peo- ple under age 65, not the older, frail adults who are typically the victims of seasonal flu. Geographically, 59% of the deaths were in Africa and Southeast Asia. Though the virus was deadly, the
swine flu pandemic is still considered to have been a fairly mild one.
World Health Statistics 2012 con- tains WHO’s annual compilation of health-related data for its 194 Member States, and includes a summary of the progress made towards achieving the health-related Millennium Develop- ment Goals (MDGs) and associated targets. This year, it also includes highlight summaries on the topics of non- communicable diseases, universal health coverage, and civil registration coverage. To download the report go to http://
www.who.int/gho/publications/world_ health_statistics/2012/en/
20million free rapid HIV
tests distributed To mark HIV testing day (28th June) The global healthcare company Ab- bott, and the medical relief organisa- tion Direct Relief International, have announced that they have reached a major milestone with the distribution of 20million free rapid HIV tests in 43 developing countries over the past decade. The focus of this donation pro-
gramme has been to reach pregnant women and their families to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. More than 150 partner organisations and 8000 health facilities have re- ceived donated tests, helping prevent more than 150000 HIV cases in chil- dren.
News
News
World Health Statistics 2012
Africa Health 11
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