Good news/bad news

Good news: New Prevnar/pneumonia vaccine for infants saves lives in Africa.

Bad news: It costs $250 for a series of four shots...in a country where the average wage is less than a thousand dollars a year

When we worked in Africa, the government subsidized measles vaccine.

Now, measles had about a fifty percent mortality-- it was closer to 90 percent in malnourished kids. And the vaccine cost about five dollars a dose, but the government subsidized it so it only cost us a dollar.

So we split the vaccine dose in half (costing us 50 cents per dose) and asked the mothers to give five cents toward the vaccine...some couldn't afford it...but actually, most could...

In some countries back then, in the 1970's and early 1980's, they divided the vaccine into one fifth dosage. Yes, some kids still got measles, but usually a less severe case and didn't die.

This vaccine sounds great: But in countries where children die of malaria for lack of a dollar's worth of anti malaria medicine, and die of diarrhea, for lack of a quarter's worth of WHO Rehydration fluid, one suspects this vaccine will be a lower priority than other public health funding...