(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, NEC Corporation, and Simprints Technology
Ltd. have signed a memorandum of understanding on the use of biometrics
to improve immunization coverage in developing countries.
Despite
enormous progress over the past two decades, there are still
approximately 20 million children (*1) who do not receive a basic course
of vaccines worldwide, leaving them exposed to some of the world’s
deadliest diseases.
One
key cause is the fact that only half of all children under 5 in
sub-Saharan Africa are currently registered at birth, leaving many
without an official identity. This makes it difficult for health
practitioners to ensure these infants get the vaccines they need at the
right time.
Guided
by Gavi’s experience and expertise in immunization, this new project
will combine Simprints’ biometric fingerprint technology and NEC’s
reinforced authentication engine to help create digital identities for
children 1-5 years of age and boost immunization coverage in developing
countries.
This
new partnership will deploy the world’s first scalable fingerprint
identification solution to give children aged 1-5 a digital ID linked to
an accurate, complete medical record. All biometric records will be
stored securely by Simprints, a UK-based non-profit social enterprise,
after caregivers give informed consent to taking their children’s
biometric data.
Implementing
this plan with conventional extraction and matching engines would be
very challenging, since young children’s fingerprints tend to be blurred
due to their softness. NEC's fingerprint authentication engine has
overcome this issue, with optimization for infant fingerprints and the
use of fingerprint images taken with Simprints scanners. This
combination has resulted in highly accurate authentication, with a
certification rate of 99% (*2).
The
three partners will begin carrying out proof of concept validation of
the technology in Bangladesh and Tanzania by early 2020. If successful,
the project will then progress to linking children’s digital identity
with their vaccination record, helping health practitioners to track
which children need to be vaccinated and when.
To
date, Gavi has contributed to the immunization of over 700 million
children in the world’s poorest countries, and an estimated 10 million
lives have been saved.
This initiative helps to promote the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations.
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(*1)
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Source: Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
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(*2)
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According to NEC research
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View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190605006063/en/
Contacts
NEC Corporation
Joseph Jasper
Corporate Communications Division
j-jasper(at)ax.jp.nec.com
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