By the end of this decade, it is projected that vaccines targeting cancer and heart disease could save millions of lives. Yet today, decades after safe and effective vaccines have been introduced and made publicly available, hundreds of thousands of deaths continue to occur from what should now be universally preventable diseases.
Why? Because vaccine technology alone does not save lives; for that, they also must be manufactured, procured, safely delivered along the supply chain and administered to individuals.
So, despite the incredible progress that has been achieved in recent decades against childhood diseases, with vaccines contributing to a more than 50% reduction in child mortality, serious gaps in global immunisation coverage continue to persist.