Ramallah, West Bank. The Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahayan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation (Zayed Foundation) and the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya Foundation (RVF) announce the launch of the universal vaccination of all infants in the West Bank and Gaza against pneumococcal disease. Pneumococcal diseases such as pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis are the leading vaccine-preventable killers of children under five years of age worldwide. Thanks to the introduction of the latest generation of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine into the routine vaccination schedule for children the entire annual birth cohort of the Palestinian territories - approximately 120,000 newborns - will be protected from these life-threatening infections.

Mothers and children await pneumococcal vaccination at a clinic in Hebron. Every infant in the West Bank and Gaza will now receive this life-saving vaccine

At the request of the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian National Authority (MOH), the Zayed Foundation generously agreed to finance this children’s vaccination program, which allows the MOH to make a crucial advance in modernizing vaccinations for children in the West Bank and Gaza. Program oversight and support are being provided by the RVF. The MOH and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) are responsible for implementing the program, which is being carried out exclusively by local healthcare personnel in order to build capacity at every level of the existing public health care infrastructure.

A mobile clinic ensures that infants in a Bedouin camp near Bethlehem are vaccinated against pneumococcal disease

Universal vaccination is the third and final phase in the current three-year program, which began with pilot phases in 2010.The MOH will assume full financial responsibility for the program beginning in 2013. The requirement of financial and operational sustainability is an inherent part of all programs supported by the RVF and the Zayed Foundation.

To read more about the pneumococcal vaccination program in the Palestinian territories, please click here