Opinion - News Analysis   

Ensuring the health of children

Nitin K. Shah, Zulfiqar Bhutta, and M.R. Khan

In recent days, India has inched closer to taking a major step forward in protecting the health of its children. The Central Government and Tamil Nadu have begun discussing whether to introduce a Hib vaccine. This inoculation could protect against many forms of pneumonia and meningitis, which together kill more children under the age of five in India than any other disease.

But so far, no final decision has been taken. We are hopeful that recent news means the Indian Government will soon choose to take this important step in protecting its children.

Globally, pneumonia is responsible for the deaths of two million children each year, more than one third of whom live in South Asia. Data from a 2002 study in India already indicated that Hib infections (which the new vaccine protects against) were a major cause of childhood pneumonia here. And just last week, data published in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal confirmed that Hib is a big problem in South Asia, causing even more pneumonia than previously thought.

Now that this new study has confirmed that Hib is a major killer, it is time for governments across South Asia to move quickly to adopt this promising Hib vaccine. There is little doubt this promising vaccine works. In the most recent large-scale Hib vaccine study, more than 68,000 children in the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, were given the vaccine. It was shown to prevent one-third of life-threatening pneumonia cases in children under the age of two. It also prevented approximately 90 per cent of Hib-related meningitis.

Even before the new data were available, the international community supported Hib vaccination. Last year, the World Health Organisation issued an official position paper recommending that all countries implement Hib vaccine programmes. Since then, several South Asian countries — including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan — have taken the lead in introducing Hib vaccination.

They have applied for funding from the GAVI Alliance, an international vaccine donor, and are working to introduce the vaccine in their countries. This new study, combined with the WHO recommendation, should motivate all South Asian nations to adopt the Hib vaccine and to work with advocates and international donors to implement vaccination programmes as quickly as possible.

Childhood vaccination programmes are a crucial step toward eradicating diseases. Hib vaccination has been identified as an important preventive tool for reducing child mortality in developing countries. Vaccines can help our nations ensure the health of our children and move us closer to reaching the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of reducing childhood death by two-thirds before 2015. Together we can take dramatic strides toward reducing child mortality across the region.

Though we are paediatricians of different nationalities, we share a common duty to protect the health and safety of our children. Diseases know no borders, and to halt infections every country must contribute to the global effort to stop disease. By working together to implement programmes such as Hib vaccination, we are all protecting the health of our most vulnerable citizens.

(Dr. Nitin K. Shah was the 2006 President of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta is the Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan. National Professor Dr. M.R. Khan is the Director of Pediatrics at the Institute of Child Health in Dhaka, Bangladesh.)

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