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Leading the way to tackling influenza
The Sabin Vaccine Institute, a nonprofit, whose donors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Blavatnik Family Foundation, and others – is backing initiatives to create and accelerate the development of a universal vaccine that has the aspirational goal of providing long-lasting immunity against many strains of influenza.
Last year, Sabin took on another important global vaccine project – the development of vaccines to protect against two strains of Ebola virus and Marburg, another hemorrhagic fever virus. Sabin also is building the case for the introduction of a new typhoid vaccine in countries that have a high burden of illness. This severe bacterial infection spreads through contaminated food and water and kills 128,000 to 161,000 people each year.
Sabin’s president of global immunization, Dr. Bruce Gellin
Even as the fallout of the coronavirus is still being calculated, other outbreaks of infectious diseases are inevitable. That’s why Sabin and others are committed to enhancing science and research, akin to what some describe as a move from firefighting to fireproofing.
Dr. Bruce Gellin, Sabin’s president of global immunization, said that given their long record of safety and effectiveness, vaccines have never been more important than they are now in today’s global, connected world.
Gellin has been on the front lines in the fight against pandemics. Before joining Sabin in 2017, he served as the deputy assistant secretary for health and director of the National Vaccine Program Office at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In that role, he
