Conjugate vaccine to help prevent blood-borne infections
A new conjugate vaccine is highly effective (93–100%) at preventing invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD), meningitis, sepsis, bacteremic pneumonia, and other blood-borne infections in infants younger than 2 years who are the most vulnerable to infection, according to new research published online first in the Lancet. The nationwide study is the first to confirm the effectiveness of the three-dose (2+1) schedule that is already used in many national programmes.
Introduced over a decade back in 2000, experts found out that the widespread use of first PCV7 vaccine has significantly reduced the burden of IPD in children younger than 5 years.
“Our findings suggest that a series of three or four shots of the new vaccine including three additional pneumococcal strains is going to work at least as well in preventing IPD, with the potential to prevent over 70% of severe pneumococcal disease cases in children worldwide,” explained Arto Palmu from the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland, one of the lead authors of the study.
In India, while the vaccine is “optional” its high price always makes it a deterrent for many parents. The vaccine could not be introduced in the national immunisation programme as the studies to gauge its importance and need are still under progress. Doctors in government setting say that the new study to be published in the Lancet can pave a way and help experts working on the studies here.
“It will also be helpful for the parents who think twice to get the vaccine administered due to its heavy price,” said a senior doctor.
In the study over three-quarters of the country was covered.
Nearly 46 000 children younger than 19 months were randomised to receive two to four doses of PCV10 (according to age) or hepatitis A or B vaccine as control. The researchers tracked the PCV10 vaccine’s effectiveness over an mean 2-year period using the National Infectious Diseases Register.
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