DATE=06/01/2002

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=CHINA/HEPATITIS (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-290402

BYLINE=NIVA WHYMAN

DATELINE=BEIJING

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: China has signed an agreement to protect children against Hepatitis B, which causes an estimated 250-thousand deaths every year in the country. Niva Whyman in Beijing has more on the story.

TEXT: At Beijing's Great Hall of the People, China's Minister of Health joined UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy and other officials to sign an agreement on a 75-million-dollar immunization program.

The Chinese government provides half the funds. The rest come from the Global Alliance for

Vaccines and Immunization, or GAVI.

UNICEF'S Ms. Bellamy explains that the cost of the vaccinations is beyond the means of many Chinese families. The government's involvement in the project covers the cost on behalf of parents.

/// BELLAMY ACT ///

Unlike the other partnerships that GAVI has engaged in in other countries, this is one where the government of China is matching the contribution of GAVI, in terms of the financial contribution, and committing themselves to reach all the children with the immunizations.

/// END ACT ///

The project aims to assure that all children born in the country are immunized against Hepatitis B.

The funds will purchase vaccines, train health workers, provide logistical support and run promotional campaigns.

/// BELLAMY ACT 2 ///

One other element of this partnership with China that is just of crucial importance, and that is the introduction and provision of 500-million-plus - more that 500 million - syringes that can only be used once. And that is very important, because we know that, around the world, the use of the same needles several times can pass illness.

/// END ACT ///

The quarter of a million Hepatitis B deaths in China annually account for almost one-third of the global death toll. Infection with Hepatitis B can lead to serious complications, including liver cancer, and most liver cancers in China are due to Hepatitis B. The immunization program could virtually eliminate the deaths caused by the most common cancer in China.

/// BELLAMY ACT 3 ///

The fact that any person should die from a vaccine-preventable illness in the year 2002 in the world today, when we have the vaccine, and when that vaccine can get to people, is really quite unconscionable

/// END ACT ///

The Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization was started in 1999 to boost immunization rates, especially in developing countries. (Signed)

NEB/HK/NW/KPD/TW