It's a gas!

A girl plays as a health worker fumigates a slum to prevent malaria in Mumbai. Reversing a downward trend, childhood immunization rates are now at their highest level ever, but due

to a funding gap of at least $1 billion, life-saving vaccines still do not reach some 24 million children - one in five born each year - who are most at risk in the poorest countries, a new United Nations report said this week. The UN report said "new and improved vaccines are urgently needed to prevent the unacceptable toll of sickness and deaths from diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS. Continued investments are essential to ensure the breakthroughs needed in the research and development of these next-generation vaccines."

Xinhua-Reuters