Expanding access to children’s vaccines in Asia

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is virtually unheard of in the Western world, but the disease kills or disables thousands of people in poor rural communities in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific each year. PATH is helping JE-endemic countries understand the disease and introduce an affordable, lifesaving vaccine to protect against it. We have partnered with Chengdu Institute of Biological Products in China to increase access to a long-successful vaccine already in use in China at an affordable price for developing countries. Countries that previously couldn’t afford JE immunization programs will now be able to consider introducing the vaccine.

In 2008, PATH and the Chengdu Institute advanced construction of a new manufacturing facility to meet the growing regional need for a JE vaccine produced to international quality standards. The institute exported more than 31 million doses of the vaccine over the course of the year.

PATH also provided technical assistance to countries that already have or will soon launch JE vaccination programs. In Cambodia, PATH supported the government in its plans to bring critical protection to thousands of children, preparing for vaccine introduction in 2009. In Vietnam, where children in high-risk areas have been vaccinated for more than ten years, PATH helped the government establish a surveillance model to track the disease and prepare for expanding immunization to the entire country.

Photo: Heng Chivoan.

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