I know that I’m often very grumpy about large parts of the foreign aid budget. I’m sure that huge amounts of it are wasted, some of it actually making things worse rather than better. Just in the interests of fairness and some semblance of impartiality though time to celebrate a worthwhile expenditure of your and my tax money.

No, I don’t know whether there might be a more efficient way of doing this and to be quite honest, given the incredibly low cost in relation to the benefit I’m not sure it’s even worth playing with alternatives:

Measles deaths have been slashed by more than half by a concerted
campaign that was hailed yesterday as a triumph for global public
health and could pave the way for eradication of one of the world’s
most infectious diseases.

Between 1999 and 2005, there was a 60%
reduction in annual measles deaths worldwide, from 873,000 to 345,000,
according to United Nations figures reported in the medical journal the
Lancet. Africa, where children are most prone to die when they catch
measles because of poor nutrition and other infections including HIV,
has led the way, with a 75% drop in deaths. In 1999, 506,000 African
children died – 90% aged under five. By 2005, the figure had fallen to
126,000.

…

To reach the 90% goal, the campaign will have to maintain the
immunisation levels in Africa and improve them, but the next hotspots
are likely to be India and Pakistan, where routine measles vaccination
is not the norm. The effort has cost about $300m (£152m) so far. The
ambitious new target to cut deaths by 90% will cost up to $500m.

$300 million spent so far to save 528,000 lives a year? Money well spent I’d say. Then again, we do have those who are really not helping:

Measles eradication could conceivably be stymied not by the developing
world, but by dissenters in rich countries such as the UK. Take-up of
the combined measles, mumps and rubella jab for young children dropped
dramatically after the publication of a paper in 1998 suggesting a
hypothetical link to autism. Although the suggestion has been widely
discredited, use of the MMR jab has not returned to the 93% level it
previously reached. Last June, it was just under 86% in England, and in
London it reached only 72.5% – way below the target of 95% the WHO says
is necessary to prevent measles outbreaks.

Thanks very much Dr. Wakefield. You’re a real help.