MSF expresses concerns regarding global vaccination efforts ahead of GAVI forum

"This week, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) is holding a forum in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania," Guardian health editor Sarah Boseley writes in her "Global Health Blog," noting, "Invited are 700 experts from all the organizations and countries GAVI works with, funding immunization programs across the globe and in some of the poorest places on the planet." One of the groups, Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), "says it is deeply concerned that the current vaccination strategy is not paying enough attention to the one in five babies who go without the most basic immunization, such as DTP (diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough) from two months and then measles vaccine, which babies should have at the age of nine months," Boseley writes, noting the group also says vaccines need to be better designed for use in Africa (12/4). In a press release, MSF notes that three new issue briefs outlining the organization's "main concerns" are available online (12/4). The first discusses vaccine pricing; the second discusses the development of "easier-to-use" vaccines, and the third discusses vaccine supply and procurement practices (12/4).