“Laos became the first South East Asian nation to introduce pneumococcal vaccine and began a demonstration project for HPV vaccine at a ceremony in the nation’ s capital Vientiane Wednesday.

“Immunization is perhaps the best investment any country can make in the health and well-being of its children,” Helen Evans, deputy CEO of GAVI alliance who supported the program, told Xinhua at the ceremony.

“It saves lives and gives children a healthy start in life. Healthy children can benefit from education and grow up to be healthy, productive adults. So it’s not just for children and families, it’s actually for the country as a whole for social and economic development,” she said.

About 180,000 infants will receive the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and 13,000 girls will receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine over the next year.”

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