China "graduates" to global donor and vaccine provider: Gavi chair

Norwegian Dagfinn Hoybraten has never lived in China, and he had never even visited before 1999, but he has felt a lifelong familiarity with the country.

This deja vu comes from photos taken by his great grandfather, Jorgen Edvin Nielsen, who spent three months traveling to the small southern city of Yiyang by steamer and riverboat in 1902. Nielsen helped build a modern hospital in the city.

"Yiyang is the most beautiful city I've ever seen," Nielsen wrote in his diary as a young man. Hoybraten longed to visit the city.

In 1999, Hoybraten, who was Norway's Health Minister at the time, made a trip to China and saw the 109-year-old Yiyang Lutheran Hospital.

"This hospital brings me, China and Norway together. Interestingly, through all these changes in China, the hospital has been running every day. It never stopped operating, even during world wars and revolutions, and now it serves a population that's as big as the Norwegian population," said Hoybraten.

He visited the hospital last week to discuss expanding an interactive partnership based on his great grandfather's legacy.

Thanks to Nielsen, Hoybraten grew up with an international perspective.

"I share the same view with my great grandfather that all men are equal and have the same value and dignity, and we should be working together across nations to enhance health and quality of life," he said.

He held on to this ideal as Norway's Minister of Health, its Minister of Labor and social affairs, and as a party chair in parliament.

In 2006, he was asked to join the board of the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), a public-private partnership committed to saving children's lives and protecting people's health by increasing access to immunization in poor countries.

"Honestly, I couldn't think of any better match with my ideas and vision and the vision of Gavi, which is to save children's lives through access to vaccination," Hoybraten said.

"Gavi is a concrete, result-oriented, efficient organization. It's working together with a broader line of partners -- UN organizations, countries, industry -- which proves a successful model," said Hoybraten.

He has served as pro bono chair of Gavi since 2011. "It's a great honor for me. I do it with joy and enthusiasm because Gavi has been a game-changer since it started."

According to the WHO, Gavi has contributed to the UN millennium goal of reducing child mortality via vaccination. "It's changing the lives of individuals in villages in countries worldwide, China included," said Hoybraten.

Between 2002 and 2011, Gavi provided China free Hepatitis B vaccines for over 25 million newborns in the poor, remote western regions of the country.

In September 2015, China signed a contract with Gavi to donate 5 million U.S. dollars to fund vaccination for 300 million children in developing countries.

The money will be allocated between 2016 and 2020, helping Gavi with a project that is expected to reach 300 million children and save five to six million lives.

"I'm glad to see China has 'graduated.' It's a donor now and it's also manufacturing vaccines and providing them for use abroad," said Hoybraten.

According to Gavi, the Chengdu Institute of Biological Products provided a Japanese encephalitis vaccine to Laos in April. Another Chinese manufacturer is likely to be pre-qualified by the WHO this year to produce the pneumonia and meningitis vaccine Pneumovax for developing countries in Africa and Southeast Asia.

China has made a great contribution to poverty eradication and it will give more to global immunization, said Hoybraten.

"China has done a good job in helping to fight Ebola in West Africa. With its human resources and medical expertise, China can help more African countries to build their health systems. As my great grandfather said, all men are brothers and sisters, so we should share what is good and beautiful -- that's also a good vision for Gavi and me," said Hoybraten. Endit