The U.S. is pledging $1.16 billion over the next three years to a global health partnership aiming to immunize 300 million children by 2025.
The U.S. has been a donor to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, since it launched in 2000 to increase access to vaccinations in low-income, low-resource countries. The U.S. contribution also will help strengthen routine vaccinations against diseases prone to outbreaks, such as measles, and maintain global stockpiles of vaccines against Ebola, cholera, yellow fever and meningitis.
"Immunization is among the most cost-effective ways to save lives, improve health and ensure long-term prosperity in developing countries, and it makes the world less vulnerable to large-scale disease outbreaks that can cross borders rapidly and threaten the entire world," said Seth Berkley, MD, Gavi's CEO. "That's why investment in Gavi from donors like the United States is so critical to global health security."
The $1.16 billion that the U.S. has committed includes $290 million in the fiscal year 2021 budget released Feb. 10.