In 1980, the World Health Organization Assembly approved a declaration in which smallpox was considered eradicated, the first and only disease eradicated in the world to date.

Smallpox had killed more than 300 million people in the XNUMXth century alone and its eradication thanks to vaccination is a collective success story for humanity, scientific research and medicine.

But there are many other success stories thanks to global vaccination strategies, from the eradication of polio in Western countries to the drastic reduction in the incidence and mortality of diseases such as measles, tetanus, whooping cough or diphtheria. It is estimated that more than 15 million deaths from measles have been prevented since 2000 and that more than 80% of newborns are now vaccinated against tetanus.

Vaccines prevent more than 3 million global deaths annually, 60 every hour, caused by 26 diseases. And work is continually being done to improve vaccines such as influenza, Covid-19 or malaria, a disease that affects more than 200 million people in the world and causes 600.000 deaths annually. They have been transformative tools for global health in the past, present and future and should not only be valued against infectious diseases but can be the answer to diseases such as cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's or multiple sclerosis.

What new challenges do global vaccination strategies and the fight against pandemics face? Is funding for vaccine research enough? What is the role of the different funders (public, private or philanthropic) and what role should they play? What needs to be done to achieve equal access to vaccines around the world?

Speakers:

• Pedro Alonso, Director of the World Malaria Program of the World Health Organization and member of the Scientific Committee of the ”la Caixa” Foundation.
• Regina Rabinovich, director of the Malaria Elimination Initiative at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, ISGlobal, and resident professor at Harvard University.

Moderator:

Josep Corbella, journalist from LA VANGUARDIA specialized in science and health.

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