By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter

The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) held a summit in Seoul Thursday with experts and policymakers from over 20 countries from the Asia-Pacific region to expand vaccination programs to combat pneumonia.

Participants of the meeting, co-organized by the GAVI Alliance's pneumoADIP and the Sabin Vaccine Institute, agreed on the need to collectively fight the diseases, a major killer of children and adults in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to the World Health Organization in 2006, more than half of all pneumonia cases worldwide occur in the region.

The IVI, dedicated to developing vaccines to protect the world's poorest people, is the only international vaccine organization whose headquarters are located in South Korea, at Seoul National University.

yoonwonsup@koreatimes.co.kr