One in five children around the world do not have access to the immunizations they need to survive and every 20 seconds a child dies from a vaccine-preventable disease. Shot@Life works to support the UN and their vaccine partners around the globe in combating four of the world’s most deadly and disabling diseases: measles, polio, pneumonia and diarrhea.
Diarrhea
Did you know diarrhea is one of the leading causes of deaths among children? Isn’t that surprising? It seems like such a preventable illness. 450,000 children under the age of five die anually from Rotavirus, the leading cause of diarrhea (that is 1,200 per day)! Most of these deaths occur in developing countries and there are two simple oral vaccines that are able to prevent rotavirus. Shot@Life is on track to raise enough funding to bring immunizations to over 53,000 children.
Measels
Measels is a highly contagious disease and most of it’s victims are under age 5. In 2014, there were about 115,000 deaths globally from the complications of measels, but worldwide measels vaccinations has resulted in a 79% drop in measels deaths. The Measels and Rubella initiative, founded by the United Nations Foundation, American Red Cross, U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF was created to ensure that no child dies from measels. Since the launch of the campaign, Shot@Life is on track to raise enough funding to bring immunizations more than 1 million children from measles.
Pneumonia
Have you known anyone who had a case of pneumonia? Pneumonia is actually the single largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide and it killed nearly 1 million children in 2013. By early 2015, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance had facilitated the introduction of the pneumococcal vaccine to 50 of the world’s poorest countries.
Polio
Polio mainly affects children under 5 in environments with poor hygeine and water quality.The Global Polio Eradication Intiative (GPEI) is a major global health partnership that includes the U.S. government, UNICEF, the World Health Organization and Rotary. Shot@Life fundraises to support this initiative and is on track to help immunize over 380,000 children from polio.
An immunization session. Burkina Faso, 2017. Photo by: Gavi / Juliette Bastin
How you can help Shot@Life and bring life-saving immunizations to children around the globe.
Become a champion by advocating for children around the world. Dedicate your time, voice and support to help ensure the U.S. Government continues to fund global immunizations programs. Since 2012, Champions have held more than 825 Congressional meetings and taken more than 60,000 online actions in support of global immunizations programs.
Become a Shot@Life Champion today.
Donate. Your tax-deductible donation will help support the work of Shot@Life’s UN partners. Just $20 helps protect a child against measles, polio, diarrheal disease, and pneumonia for life!
Share this post. Many are not aware of the sheer number of deaths by these four major diseases and the work Shot@Life is doing to eradicate them. Share this post and spread awareness!
Leave a Reply