Doha: The West has almost won the battle against cervical cancer by developing a vaccine. The disease kills an estimated 200,000 women worldwide every year, ironically though, some 80 per cent of them in poorer countries. According to an expert who works with an international organisation which offers vaccines to the world’s poorest countries, the anti-cervical cancer vaccine is expensive and costs some $300 per course of three injections.

And it may take some time before it is introduced to the vulnerable and poorer areas of the world. The anti-cervical vaccine is given to teenage girls before sexual contact, Geoff Adlide, head, advocacy and public policy of Geneva based GAVI Alliance, said.

Adlide, who is here to attend the ongoing UN Conference on Financing Development, told The Peninsula in a brief interview yesterday that malaria remained the largest killer of children the world over. An Australian, Adlide said a lot of research initiatives on developing a vaccine against malaria were on but no breakthrough had yet been made. “I think it might take another five to seven years before we have a vaccine to fight the killer disease.”

GAVI Alliance, he pointed out, had helped immunise an incredible 159 million people against hepatitis-B in 67 countries around the world over the past six years. The anti- hepatitis-B vaccine is most effective when it is given to children under one year of age. Pneumonia is the next bigger killer of children and accounts for some 20 per cent, or 800,000 deaths in poorer countries. But an effective vaccine is already available against the disease, he said. GAVI tackles leading global causes of vaccine-preventable deaths in children under five years old. Every year some 10 million children die in poorer countries, one-fourth of them in countries where vaccines are not available.