Global Immunization Rates Rise

Global immunization rates rose from less than 20 percent in 1980 to 74 percent in 1999, according to figures released by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Friday.

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy attributed the achievement to the partnership between U.N. bodies and governments.

Bellamy, who is chair of the world's leading alliance for childhood immunization, known as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), said the scheme aims at further increasing immunization rates for the most well-known childhood diseases -- polio, tetanus, diphtheria, meals, pertussis and tuberculosis.

GAVI is working towards a goal of at least 80 percent routine immunization coverage in all local districts in 80 percent of the developing world by 2005, with an ultimate aim to ensure that all children have equal access to the vaccines they need, Bellamy was quoted by the New York-based UNICEF as telling a GAVI board meeting in London Friday.

People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/