PHA-Exchange> GATES FOUNDATION GIVES $10 MILLION TO UN FIGHT AGAINST DEADLY MATERNAL TETANUS

[Aviva]

GATES FOUNDATION GIVES $10 MILLION TO UN FIGHT AGAINST DEADLY MATERNAL
TETANUS
New York, Nov 18 2003 10:00AM
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has received a $10 million
grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fight 
maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT), which kills an estimated 230,000
mothers and babies annually in the poorest and most remote 
areas of the world.

Noting that at a cost of just $1.20 per woman, UNICEF can eliminate
these needless deaths with a safe and effective vaccine that 
has been available in the developed world for more than 70 years, the
agency called the gift, an extension of $26 million given in 
1999, a challenge grant to encourage other donors and foundations to
contribute.

In order to achieve elimination of MNT worldwide by 2005, UNICEF needs
to raise an additional $147 million. An estimated 207 
million women still need to be immunized.

MNT strikes when tetanus spores, found in soil everywhere, come into
contact with open cuts during childbirth in unsanitary 
conditions. Within days, tetanus spreads throughout the body, causing
spasms, paralyzing stiffness and arching of the spine. 
Eighty per cent of newborns and mothers who develop the disease die
from it.

The vaccine protects mothers for up to 10 years and their newborn
babies for the critical first few months of life.

UNICEF is implementing a three-pronged approach to eliminating tetanus:
immunization; promoting clean deliveries – UNICEF is 
helping train health workers in clean birthing techniques and teaching
communities about the dangers of tetanus; and surveillance 
– UNICEF and its partners identify areas in which mothers and newborns
are at risk of tetanus, measure the quality of 
immunizations and clean delivery services, and monitor a country’s
elimination status and the sustainability of its achievement.