Donors pledge $4.3 billion for vaccines for poor

British Prime Minister David Cameron Monday opened an international conference in London aiming to plug a funding gap of 2.3 billion pounds (3.7 billion dollars) for live—saving vaccines for millions of children in the world’s poorest countries.

Mr. Cameron pledged that Britain would donate a further 814 million pounds to GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, a public—private partnership aimed at eradicating preventable diseases.

The conference is co—hosted by Bill Gates, the US billionaire and head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Children dying from diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea should be “absolutely unthinkable” in 2011, said Mr. Cameron.

New pledges from governments, business leaders and international organizations expected to be given Monday would save 4 million lives by 2015. “What greater value for money can there possibly be?”, said Mr. Cameron.