The economic and social benefits of childhood vaccinations in BRICS

PerspectivesThe international community has suc-cessfully promoted childhood vaccina-tion as an essential public health inter-vention. This has been accomplished through efforts such as the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Expanded Pro-gramme on Immunization and more recently, the establishment of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI Alliance), a global health part-nership committed to ensuring access to low-cost immunization in developing countries. While such global efforts have resulted in large increases in vaccine coverage worldwide, there is still a large population that remains uncovered. Inadequate immunization coverage is apparent among middle-income coun-tries. As middle-income countries do not receive support from the GAVI Al-liance, lack of funds may account for low coverage, and vaccine delivery in these settings may suffer from inefficiencies that have been resolved in high-income countries.