Global health officials rally behind $1B vax push

One of the reasons vaccine manufacturers have been enjoying a boom in business comes from the huge push to vaccinate children around the world. And a new report from the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the World Bank helped highlight just how big a push there has been.

A total of 106 million infants were inoculated last year, a record. And four out of five children had access to vaccines. But 24 million kids who should have been vaccinated weren't, and the health officials want wealthy countries to cover the billion-dollar tab that will have to be paid to raise vaccination rates from 80 percent to more than 90 percent.

The World Bank's Rakesh Nangia says that the cost of vaccinations has gone up considerably--from $3 to $5 in 1980 to $18 today. And with new jabs arriving for pneumococcal disease, rotavirus diarrhea and other conditions, he expects that will grow swiftly to $30.

"All good things cost, and so do these vaccinations," Nangia told reporters.

- read the story from Nature

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