The Children's Vaccine Initiative--will it work?

The Children's Vaccine Initiative (CVI), proposed in 1990, hopes to save 2-3 million children annually from death or disability due to infectious diseases. In addition to improving worldwide immunization coverage, the CVI has established ambitious goals for enhancing present vaccines and developing new ones. In the quest for the ultimate vaccine--an affordable, heat-stable, orally administered, multiple-antigen, single immunization to be given at birth--scientists must face many clinical and technical problems. Such a vaccine is years, perhaps decades, away from development, but the CVI can benefit along the way from the incremental improvements that a worldwide, focused scientific effort will bring.