Rationale
The Fondazione Achille Sclavo focusses its activities on accelerating the development of vaccines against gastroenteritis and dysentery.
The priority for the development of vaccines to fight these childhood infectious diseases is based on:
– the extremely high impact of these illnesses on infant morbidity and mortality,
– the lack of adequate vaccines to fight these diseases in poor countries,
– the concrete possibility to make these vaccines available to poor countries within 5 to 10 years.
This chart outlines the current situation of vaccines against the principal childhood illnesses:
Enteritis and Dysentery: the first cause of death under 5 years of age | ||
Pathogen | type | Vaccine availability |
Rotavirus | virus | vaccine effective in children being introduced |
Salmonella spp. | bacteria | vaccine effective in children NOT available |
Shighella spp. | bacteria | vaccine NOT available |
ETEC | bacteria | vaccine NOT available |
V. cholerae | bacteria | vaccine effective in children NOT available |
Respiratory infections: the second cause of mortality under 5 years of age | ||
Pathogen | type | Vaccine availability |
Pneumococcus | bacteria | vaccine effective in children being introduced |
Haemophilus i. tipo b | bacteria | vaccine effective in children being introduced |
Meningococcus | bacteria | vaccine effective in children available only for type A |
Influenza | virus | vaccine available |
Respiratory syncytial virus | virus | vaccine NOT available |
More specifically our Priority Projects are:
- development of a vaccine against Salmonella to fight typhoid fever,
- development of a combined vaccine against Salmonella to fight typhoid and paratyphoid fevers,
- development of a vaccine against non-typhoid salmonellosis,
- development of a vaccine against Shigella.
Estimated number of deaths by causes in 2008 in children 1 to 59 months
Source: Robert E. Black et al.for the Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group of WHO and UNICEF Lancet online May 12, 2010
Deaths by diarrheal diseases by age class – 2008 Source: WHO Global Burden of Diseases
Diarrhoea mortality age 0-4 by Country Income class 2008 Source: WHO Global Burden of Disease