President Jakaya Kikwete has hailed the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) for its initiatives on immunization, saying the move has made immunization possible to 370 million children in developing countries.
Addressing the Margins of GAVI second Replenishing Conference here on Monday, Dr Kikwete, said the initiative has helped the developing countries to prevent more than 5.5 million future deaths since 2000.
"These would have been caused by preventable diseases such as Hepatitis B, Haemophilus Influenza type B (HiB), Measles, Pertussis, Pneumonic disease, Polio, Rotavirus, Diarrhoea and Yellow Fever," said Head of the State.
The meeting aimed at discussing to scale up of the immunization programmes to reach more children and save more lives, brought together heads of state and different stakeholders in the programme.
Mr Kikwete pointed out that it took a lot of efforts and commitment on the part of a number of players including GAVI, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other partners, to prevent the diseases.
"We in Tanzania have made remarkable achievements with regard to vaccine and immunization coverage.
Thanks to GAVI every child irrespective of the place they came from, family they belong to or gender are now granted free access to immunization," he said.
Mr Kikwete thanked the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the outstanding contribution to the programme.
"Tanzania is proud to be part of this great GAVI family, and part of this historical mission of saving lives of innocent children through vaccine and immunization," he said.
President Kikwete is here on official tour whereby among the other things is expected to hold discussion with French leaders.
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