Doctors Without Borders

What it costs to prevent measles epidemics

• It costs less than US$1 for the vaccine to protect one child from measles for life.

• It will cost $212 million to reach the Measles Initiative’s target of reducing measles deaths by 95% by 2015.

• The funding shortfall: There is a present funding shortfall of $43.4 million to reach this target.

“5 Lives” tells the stories of people who MSF works with every day, people whose lives often hinge on whether or not they can gain access to a simple medical intervention. These are situations that could be avoided with proper and sustainable funding and investment in public health. That’s why MSF supports calls to permanently allocate a small portion of a new financial transaction tax (FTT), which has been proposed by some governments, to support global health needs. A regular stream of funding would help provide some of the resources needed to address unchecked health crises around the world.