Corporate Responsibility Report 2008

Preventing disease

Infectious diseases kill millions of people in the developing world each year.

They cause misery, cost billions of dollars and slow economic growth. Preventing infection is more effective than treatment and can have significant social and economic benefits.

Our vaccines play a significant role in preventing disease.

GSK supports innovative community approaches to disease prevention that are tailored to local settings and needs. 2008 marked two significant milestones in our support for community disease prevention; it is ten years since we made a commitment to eliminate lymphatic filariasis (LF) worldwide and since we launched our hand-washing programme PHASE, to prevent diarrhoea-related disease.

We also support a wide range of local programmes to help prevent disease in the communities where we operate.