The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Pneumococcal diseases: call to include vaccines in NIP

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Sunday, Apr 17, 2011
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Pneumococcal diseases: call to include vaccines in NIP

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Medical practitioners under the banner of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics expressed concern that vaccines for pneumococcal diseases that were responsible for 40 per cent of the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in the country that was 72 per 1,000 births, were yet to be included in the National Immunisation Programme (NIP).

Addressing presspersons on the sidelines of a continuing medical education programme organised by the multinational Pfizer here on Saturday, former president of the academy Nitin Shah said Prevenar 13, the latest vaccine to treat pneumococcal diseases which was expensive as of now - Rs. 3,500 per dose -- could be made available for children at prices below Rs. 100 if only it was brought under the National Immunisation Schedule and with assistance from the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisation (GAVI), a group of voluntary agencies primarily comprising the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Most dangerous

Four of the most dangerous of pneumococcal diseases were meningitis, sepsis, pneumonia and middle ear infection, he said, adding that these and nine more conditions could be avoided through vaccination.

White paper

Dr. Shah said that in 2007, the academy had published a white paper and forwarded it to the government, explaining why it was imperative for pneumococcal vaccination should be included in the NIP in India.

Former Superintendent of the Institute of Child Health, Niloufer Hospital, P. Sudershan Reddy recalled the World Health Organisation's recommendations that pneumococcal vaccines be included in the NIPs of all those countries where the IMR was over 50 for every 1,000 births.

Marina Salvadori of the Department of Paediatrics, University of Western Ontario and a member of the Immunisation Committee, Canadian Paediatric Society, said in Canada they had launched an aggressive process to institutionalise immunisation between 2002 and 2007. They were seeing the benefits now in the form of appreciable drop in cases of meningitis and pneumonia, she added.

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