A global vaccine initiative is seeking $4.3 billion in new funding to ramp up child immunization campaigns against deadly diseases.
The Geneva-based GAVI alliance, launched a decade ago as a partner of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, says governments and other donors could help save 4.2 million lives if they meet the funding demands through 2015.
GAVI is targeting illnesses like hepatitis B, diarrhea and pneumonia in the developing world.
The organization said Thursday it will make its appeal for the cash at a meeting next week in The Hague, Netherlands.
GAVI's call for money comes less than two months after the Microsoft co-founder and his wife pledged to donate $10 billion over the next decade to bring new vaccines to poor countries.
