The World Health Organization will pilot a process to make alternative treatments for cancer available in middle- to low-income countries.
The UN Children’s Fund is calling for action to make vaccines available to infants and children in conflict-affected areas, rural communities, overcrowded areas and slums.
4 May 2017: The World Health Organization (WHO) is launching a pilot process to make more affordable alternatives to cancer drugs available in middle- to low-income countries, while the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for action to make vaccines available to infants and children in conflict-affected areas and other places where vaccination is limited. The initiatives would address the impacts of inequality on health, supporting the achievement of both SDG 3 (good health and well-being) and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities).
WHO will invite manufacturers to submit applications to provide “biosimilars” for treating non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and breast cancer for procurement under its Essential Medicines List. Biosimilars are lower-cost versions of medications, often manufactured by other companies once the patent on the original product has expired. Such medications must be regulated appropriately to ensure patient safety, noted Suzanne Hill, WHO.
On 26 April, marking World Immunization Week, UNICEF issued a call for improving access to vaccines, highlighting conflict-affected areas, rural communities and urban slums as the places where children are most likely to miss out on receiving full vaccinations. Around two-thirds of all unvaccinated children live in conflict-affected areas. Polio is still a threat to children in Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, which receive more doses of vaccines than any other country through UN agencies’ work on the joint Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
In addition to the impacts of living in a conflict-affected region, UNICEF notes that the children missing out on vital vaccinations often live in rural communities where access to services is limited, in overcrowded cities and in slum dwellings. In such places, overcrowding, poverty, poor hygiene and sanitation, and inadequate nutrition and health care increase the risk of pneumonia, diarrhea and measles, but these are “easily preventable with vaccines,” says Robin Nandy, UNICEF.
In a press release marking World Immunization Week, which ran from 24-30 April 2017, UNICEF reported that 1.5 million children die annually from diseases that can be prevented by vaccines, and 19.4 million children around the world do not receive full vaccinations. [WHO Press Release] [UNICEF Press Release] [UN Press Release on Immunizations and Inequality] [World Immunization Week Website]