Jeffrey BROWN: And finally, tomorrow the World Day of pneumonia, noting that the disease continues to destroy the lives of people around the world. Ray Suarez recently traveled to Nicaragua to see the efforts to combat this problem is. RAY SUAREZ: This is hardly the place to see the results of multi-million deal, one-room church in rural Nicaragua. Here, children in a small village usually used (pH) are life a new vaccine, put on the market through a revolutionary business model. The vaccine prevents bacterial pneumonia. It is imperative in Nicaragua, where pneumonia is the number one killer of children under five years. DR. Brian Chavez
Nicaragua (through translator): The main symptoms are shortness of breath, chills, loss of appetite, leading to exhaustion. But these cities are located in remote and families have a difficult time traveling to the hospital, so that the disease often death is the end result. RAY SUAREZ: Even kids who really make it to the hospital face daunting odds. DR. Felix Sanchez, the hospital
children Managua (through translator): Twenty percent of children in the hospital, admitted for pneumonia, and more than half of them die. RAY SUAREZ: Children who are not mature reflex cough, are most at risk. Worldwide, pneumonia is the biggest cause of infant death, accounting for about one in five deaths among young children, an estimated 1. 8000000 deaths annually. Ninety percent of pneumonia deaths each year occur in developing countries. Nicaragua is the poorest, second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Like other developing countries, Nicaragua can not afford a new vaccine, as well as for pneumococcal pneumonia for children left without a steep decline in prices. And that's just what he got this shot of pneumonia, a whopping 95 percent discount. How do you get cost of vaccine compared with about $ 100 a dose of less than $ 5? Providing pharmaceutical companies a steady stream of income, ensuring that all children be vaccinated in the country. Pharmaceutical companies, in this case, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, promised a huge market of consumers, if they all cost. Dr. Orin Levine is the International Centre for Vaccine Access and teaches at Johns Hopkins University. DR. ORIN Levin
Johns Hopkins University: Thus, market commitment basically says we will ensure that there is a market that is money on the table if you make a vaccine that meets the needs of, and if countries developing countries require it. RAY SUAREZ: Pharmaceutical unusual deal brokered by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, now known as HAVI. HAVI Alliance, which includes the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Nyusauer sponsor, donated $ 1. 5000000000 dollars. Without this money, the new vaccine eventually make it to the poorest countries, but only after several years of delay. Dr. Seth Berkley is the CEO HAVI. DR. Seth Berkley,
HAVI: It takes 15, sometimes 20 years, and this rule, the time lag between the moment when these products appear and they get to people living in the poorest countries. What HAVI trying to do is shorten it. And pneumococcus, is one of the first examples or better examples of the product in a few years after went to the West, is currently deployed in developing countries. This is very interesting intervention. RAY SUAREZ: Nicaragua was the first developing country to roll out pneumococcal vaccine in the past year. It was a tragic case of bad timing Diana del Socorro Blanco Guevara (pH), whose 17-month daughter, Angie (pH), sick and ill as well as the vaccine was introduced here. Diana del Socorro BLANCO,
mother (through translator): My daughter suddenly deteriorated. She was tired. She could not get enough oxygen. They took her into the room and told me that had to put a tube down the throat. They put an IV in everywhere. RAY SUAREZ: Angie died in early February, after several weeks of trying to breathe. Diana del Socorro BLANCO (through translator): I suffered when I saw my daughter in the hospital. People said that we should leave, but we have not. We slept in the top of the board, under the trees. I do not want other mothers going through what I went. I never lost what I loved in my life. DR. ORIN Levin:
Pneumonia is a disease and pneumococcus is a bacterium that infects all around the world, but the effects will be uneven. Thus, in countries such as Nicaragua, where people live in poverty, the consequences of infection is more severe as they may nedoyidaty, they can live in a much more dangerous housing and the environment. And they often lack access to lifesaving antibiotics and oxygen therapy. RAY SUAREZ: for every child who dies from pneumonia in developed countries, 2000 die in developing countries. Diana del Socorro BLANCO (through translator): It makes me feel good I know that there is a solution now for the children so that mothers do not have to suffer what I suffered my terrible loss. I think about it every day. You can not see it, but I think about it. Memories, they are there every day. RAY SUAREZ: Karl Maria Fonseca Kuadra strattera (f) is a neighbor of Blanco. Fonseca saw how devastating the loss of Angie's mother of the child, and made sure that vaccinate her three children. One suffers from asthma. KARLA Maria Fonseca (through translator): He is very sensitive to the suffering. His asthma left him weak, but I think now that the vaccine, it is much safer. DR. ORIN Levin:
beauty of science, when we make a big breakthrough when it leads to social justice, when he essentially eliminates the differences in the kind of risk that children in poverty, persons, and due to the fact that we now can get pneumococcal vaccines saving children in Nicaragua at the same time get them to children in Newark. RAY SUAREZ: But the delivery of health care, making it to where people can get it when the government can spend a few dollars per year per patient is a difficult task sometimes becomes even more difficult for corruption in government. So HAVI also requires that countries such as Nicaragua show in advance, they can achieve at least 70 percent of its citizens. DR. ORIN Levin:
In a sense, this kind of carrot. It encourages countries to strengthen their systems and to reach every child to do the right skills for these new vaccines. RAY SUAREZ: Nancy Vasconez is immunization advisor Pan-American Health Organization, PAHO, part of the United Nations. She said that the promise of wide spread is a huge achievement for a developing country like Nicaragua. Nancy VASCONEZ,
Pan-American Health Organization (through translator): This is a commitment the government makes. And commitment is the last day or one year. The contract for 20 years. The government should pay staff and managers to ensure that the vaccine is used correctly, and where people live. RAY SUAREZ: Nicaragua health workers fanned out, armed for battle with coolers filled with vaccine. Nancy VASCONEZ (through translator): I know we can not measure the cost of death, but if we measure the number of years for which we extend life and prevent serious illnesses, we can estimate the cost of living, and I think the Government of Nicaragua made a better investment. RAY SUAREZ: HAVI Alliance plans to continue deployment of more than 40 countries, and hopes to prevent 700,000 deaths in 2015, and seven million people by 2030. Yes, it hurts all right, but a man with a needle can only save his life. .
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