Senegal: HEALTH - Okonjo-Iweala suggests investing in vaccination programs
Pathé Touré
Okonjo-Iweala advocated in Addis Ababa at the place of governments to favor vaccination in national budgets as it offers good profit in the economic development of countries.
The former Minister of Finance of Nigeria, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, now President of the Board of Directors of Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) to benefit friends of the African Development Week, held in Addis Ababa to advocate to African governments calling them to invest heavily in immunization programs because it is cheaper to prevent than to cure.
In his presentation to the Annual Meetings of the ninth conference of the Specialized Technical Committee of the African Union in charge of Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration and the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and economic development of ECA, Okonjo-Iweala demands that governments include vaccination in their annual budgets.
According to a statement, she said that priority vaccination in national budgets offer good profits in the economic development of countries. She adds that a recent study by John Hopkins University in the US shows that for every US dollar spent on vaccination, profit is 16 dollars savings in health costs.
"This is a high profit for the Ministers of Finance and Planning; and it is one of the most effective ways to spend our dollars on health. Immunization of our children and citizens save us additional health spending, "said Okonjo-Iweala.
Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of GAVI, also made a presentation, asking governments to focus vaccination into their budgets and says it only takes the political will to prevent unnecessary loss of life.
SOURCE: http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/201604070546.html
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