The new Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV13) will help reduce morbidity and mortality rates among children with its wide coverage of a large number of new strains of pneumococcus bacteria. The Supreme Council of Health started administering an additional dose of the vaccine to children on Monday.
The Vaccination Section of the Public Health Department at SCH in cooperation with the Primary Health Care held a symposium on “Significance of Supplemental Dose of PCV13” prior to launching the additional dose.
“The additional dose of PCV13 is another milestone achievement for the Expanded Programme of Immunisation in Qatar as the country has always been a pioneer in this field, particularly that it has the most robust and updated immunisation schedule for children,” said Dr Mohammd bin Hamad Al Thani, Director of Public Health Department at SCH.
“PCV13, which protects against 13 strains of bacteria that can cause meningitis and pneumococcal diseases in children, replaces the previous vaccine which was introduced in the immunization schedule in 2005 and protects only against seven strains of bacteria,” he said,
A laboratory study carried out by Dr Sanjai, Consultant and Head of Microbiology in HMC showed that the most common disease strains found here was 1,3,14,A19.
The study was based on the diseases caused by pneumococcus after introduction the PVC7 in 2005 and it covered children below five years and adults above 50 years. The study included analysing 246 samples of blood, cerebro-spinal fluid and saliva from 2005 to September 2010.
At least 163 of the samples were positive, 75 of which were of children below five years of age. The study also revealed that the new vaccine PCV13 covers a large number of these new strains in Qatar. This helps reduce the morbidity and mortality rates among children below five years and adults above 60 years.
Dr Catherine Weil Oliver, Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Paris and Member of the Technical Committee of Vaccines in France said that introducing the vaccine to the expanded immunisation schedule in many countries contributed to the decrease of pneumococcal diseases, meningitis and septicaemia in addition to the positive impact of the vaccine to immunity.
“PVC13 was introduced to the routine schedule of children last October. An additional dose of the vaccine will be administered to children between the age of 18 months to five years, who were administered all the previous vaccines of PCV7 in the Primary Health Centers in Qatar, while the vaccine will be administered to children below 18 months of age as per the routine immunisation schedule,” said Dr Mohammad Al Hajri, Director of Health Protection and Communicable Diseases Control.
“The objective behind giving these additional doses is to enhance the protection of pediatric health and keep up with the latest developments related to vaccines and preventive services, particularly that the vaccine covers 92% of the common strains of the disease,” he said.
THE PENINSULA