Close to 100 underprivileged children from a number of charities received free vaccinations against pneumococcal disease today at Thomson Community Centre.
The children, aged between two to five years, were from Beyond Social Services, Down Syndrome Association, Jamiyah Children’s Home, Singapore Children’s Society, family service centres in Northeast CDC and the PAP Community Foundation.
The vaccination was conducted by a team of eight volunteer doctors and nurses led by Associate Professor Daniel Goh, President of the Singapore Paediatric Society and Head of Paediatrics at National University Hospital’s University Children’s Medical Institute.
The free vaccination was a collaboration between pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the Singapore Paediatric Society. It was held in conjunction with the launch of a new vaccine by Pfizer against invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD ), called Pneumococcal 13-valent Conjugate Vaccine (PCV-13).
PCV-13 protects against 13 strains of IPD, which causes illnesses such as pneumonia, meningitis, blood infection and acute otitis media. Pneumococcal disease is the leading cause of vaccine-preventable death worldwide in children under the age of five, according to an estimate by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The new PCV-13 vaccine provides 91.2% coverage against IPD – the broadest of any pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. It will succeed the 7-Valent vaccine (PCV-7) currently available under the National Childhood Immunization Programme (NCIP).
Asia One