SIEM REAP, Cambodia — In the shadow of a 12th-century temple, infant Chan Rasmey became the first child in Asia to be immunized by The Vaccine Fund, a $1.8 billion initiative funded largely by Bill Gates.
The inoculation took place Sunday on the outskirts of this tourist destination — home to the famous Angkor Wat temple — and marks the start of the immunization drive in Asia and its five-year commitment to Cambodia.
Its aim is to inoculate newborns across the country of 11 million with three vaccines including one to prevent the deadly hepatitis B-diphtheria virus.
The immunization drive — launched in 1999 with a $750 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — plans to support vaccination programs in 74 of the world's poorest countries.
Cambodia is only the second country where work has begun, after a project in Mozambique in April.
UNICEF international director Carol Bellamy, Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., representatives of the Gates' foundation and senior Cambodian officials took part in the ceremony at a small health center adjacent to the historic Atvea temple.
It was conducted outside with health officials sitting around tables. A group of 30 young Cambodian mothers with babies in their arms, all younger than 12 months, waited in line.
Chan Rasmey's mother handed the 6-month-old girl over to a Cambodian nurse who gave her an injection in the right arm. The child, whose name means moonlight, wailed as the needle poked her arm.
Health Minister Hong Sun Huot said the government will use the $296,000 initially pledged by the fund for Cambodia to inoculate 96,000 children, mostly in the central province of Kampong Chhnang. He said 10 percent of the province's population live with hepatitis B, which attacks the liver and leads to death.
There are no accurate figures for the number of Cambodians affected by hepatitis but the government estimates it is between 2 percent and 10 percent of the population.
"Our poor country desperately needs the assistance, the minister said.
Jacques-Francois Martin, the fund's president, said the program likely will spend between $300,000 and $400,000 annually in Cambodia for five years. Larger programs will start soon in Laos and Vietnam, he said.
"More than 30 million children born annually (in the world) do not receive any immunizations and 10 percent of those will die in their lifetimes by vaccine-preventable diseases, Martin said.
Gates, the founder of Microsoft, focuses much of his $22 billion foundation on health care projects, said Sally Stansfield, a senior officer with the charitable foundation.
Cambodia is one of the 10 poorest countries in the world.
According to UNICEF, 8.6 percent of Cambodian children die before reaching their first birthday. Only 64 percent of Cambodia's children have received this basic immunizations that are taken for granted in industrialized nations.