The Supreme Council of Health (SCH) will start administering additional dose of pneumococcal vaccine (PCV) 13 at primary health centres on Monday.
The new PCV 13 which provides protection against 13 strains of bacteria will be used instead of the PCV 7 which hasbeen in practice since 2005, a local daily has reported.
“PCV 13 protects against 13 strains of bacteria and hence can effectively protect against meningitis, pnemunococcal diseases etc in children,” said Dr Mohammed Al Hajari, Head of the health protection and communicable disease control department at SCH.
“We will have a seminar to educate health professional in Qatar about the importance of the additional dose on Sunday. Dr Catherine Will Oliver, Professor at the Department of Children, university of Paris will conduct the seminar targeted at physicians, nurses, pharmacists on dealing with the vaccine and administering it to children.”
According to Dr Al Hajari, the additional dose is given to strengthen the immunity of children and keep up with the latest developments in the vaccine and preventive services. PVC 13 was introduced to replace PCV 7 which gave protection against seven strains pnemunococcal bacteria.
World wide, PCV7 has been used since 2000 there is now significantly less pneumococcal disease caused by the seven strains. However, other strains of the bacteria-Streptococcus pneumoniae that are not in PCV7 have become more common.
PCV13 includes six additional subspecies of bacteria (serotype), protecting against more disease than PCV7. In particular, PCV13 vaccine protects against serotype 19A, which has become the most common pneumococcal serotype and is often resistant to antibiotics.
“The vaccine covers 92 percent of the disease strains in circulation and hence provides high protection for the children and reduce the risk of catching the disease,” he said.
A single, supplemental dose of PCV13 vaccine will be administered to children aged 18 months to five years of age followed by four doses of PCV 7 and thus protecting them from the six new patterns of pneumococcal disease.
PCV7 which was included in the vaccine schedule for children in Qatar in 2005 was replaced by PVC 13 in October 2010.
The Peninsula