Global Advocacy for PCV (GAP) Project

Challenge

Pneumonia continues to be the leading infectious cause of death for children under 5, responsible for millions of hospitalizations and hundreds of thousands of child deaths worldwide. Most of these deaths are preventable with the tools we currently have, our best prevention tool being vaccines. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) have been shown to significantly reduce illness and deaths related to pneumonia and meningitis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. There are three highly efficacious, WHO-prequalified pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) available to countries for use in national immunization programs. As of January 2022, when this project began, 147 countries have introduced these vaccines into their national programs; additional low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) have expressed plans to introduce the vaccine in the near future. Many remaining barriers are country- and context-specific, however COVID-19 pandemic-related disruptions have also further slowed processes and set back plans for PCV introduction and scale up.

Approach

Our goal for this project is to develop and employ tailored, targeted advocacy strategies to accelerate equitable, sustainable PCV introduction in the low- and middle-income countries that have not yet made a decision to introduce the vaccine in their national immunization programs. Expanding global PCV coverage is likely to further reduce children death and suffering, and bring us closer to achieving the Sustainable Developmental Goal # 3 that ensures healthy lives and promotes well-being for all at all ages.

Challenge

Approach

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