Call to vaccinate children against pneumococcal diseases

SHANGHAI: About 300 toddlers in Singapore are now trying out a new vaccine that should protect them better against killer diseases like pneumonia and meningitis than anything else now available.

The results of the trial, being carried out by the KK Women's & Children's Hospital (KKH), the National University Hospital (NUH) and the National Healthcare Group's polyclinics, will be out next year.

The vaccine by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), already approved for use in 44 countries, protects children up to age two against 10 of the 90 bacteria that can cause pneumococcal diseases.

The vaccine now available in Singapore, from Wyeth, is a shield against only seven of these bugs.

Deaths from pneumococcal diseases, which include pneumonia, meningitis and blood poisoning, are rare in Singapore because of the high health-care standards, but can still cause needless illness and even permanent damage.

The preventable nature of these diseases is the reason doctors now in Shanghai for the 13th Asian Pacific Congress of Paediatrics have been championing their use to forestall illness, disability and even death.

The GSK vaccine has created a buzz among doctors attending the Shanghai conference.

Besides protecting a child against the seven bugs that the Wyeth one wards off plus three others, it is also a shield against one other bacterium known to cause more cases of childhood pneumonia than any other single bug, said Professor Allan Cripps of Griffiths University in Australia.

The Singapore Government is sold on vaccination against pneumococcal diseases. Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan has already announced that such vaccines will be put on the national childhood immunity programme.

Details are expected next week.

The Wyeth vaccine now available in Singapore is an elective one, and expensive to boot. It costs between $150 and $180 a jab and a child needs a course of three or four jabs before the age of two.

This is why far fewer Singapore parents than desired put their children through it.

So far this year, two Singapore toddlers have died from pneumococcal infections; worldwide, about a million children die from them each year.

To Dr Samuel Rajadurai, who heads neonatology at KKH, the argument for making the vaccine a standard part of a childhood immunisation programme is strong.

He noted that in the United States, for example, it costs U5$1 million (5$1.4 million) a year to look after a child stricken with cerebral palsy or mental retardation as a result of skipping the vaccine.

Such care is likely to cost less in Singapore, he said, but would still be expensive - and this does not even take into account the pain a family goes through when a child becomes very ill or disabled.

Professor Quak Seng Hock, head of paediatric gastroenterology at NUH, said babies six months and younger generally enjoy protection from antibodies they receive from their mothers. But this does not protect them entirely against illnesses caused by the many pneumococcal bugs.