Dagi Kimani
29 June 2008
Nairobi — LEADING EXPERTS IN INFECTIOUS diseases and vaccines have called for a global effort against pneumococcal disease, one of the world's leading killers of adults and children.
The nearly 1,000 experts met recently at the 6th International Symposium on Pneumococci and Pneumococcal Diseases (ISPPD-6) held in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Pneumococcal disease is a broad term covering bacterial infection that causes such illnesses as pneumonia, meningitis, sepsis and other life-threatening ailments caused by the common bacterium Pneumococcus.
There are more than 90 known pneumococcal bacterial strains, with the 10 most common types accounting for approximately 62 per cent of disease worldwide.
The various disease conditions arising from the bacteria depend on where the organism infects the body. If, for example, it infects the lungs, it causes pneumonia, while an invasion of the meninges, the membranes covering the brain, causes meningitis.
The various infections from the bacteria kill 1.6 million people each year, including more than 800,000 children under age five. Most of the deaths occur in impoverished parts of the world, where diagnosis and treatment is a challenge. The incidence of pneumococcal disease has also risen with the rise in HIV infections.
Addressing the Reykjavik symposium, Dr Fred Were, chairman of the Kenya Paediatric Association and member of the Pneumococcal Awareness Council of Experts (PACE), said that the need for new, longer-lasting vaccines was particularly urgent in poor countries, where access to healthcare facilities was a challenge.
"In Kenya alone, we lose more than 20,000 children under five each year to pneumococcal disease," said Dr Were. "Current and future vaccines could potentially prevent 50 to 80 per cent of these deaths."
If implemented globally, pneumococcal vaccines can save the lives of up to 5.5 million people by 2030. Some of the best vaccines however remain at the developmental stage.
"Safe, effective vaccines exist to prevent pneumococcal disease, and improved ones are expected in 2009," observed Dr Orin Levine, the co-chair of PACE. "We have the scientific knowledge and financial resources.
What we need now is political will as the price of inaction will be measured in lives lost unnecessarily."
EXISTING PNEUMOCOCCAL VACcines have been available since 2000. Experts say that they can safely and effectively protect children and adults against pneumococcal infections.
The so-called 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-7), which is effective against a combination of infections, is currently in use in over 70 countries, including Kenya. Other conjugate vaccines that can offer expanded protection are currently in the late stages of development and are expected to be licensed by 2009.
"By bringing NGOs, scientists, industry and health and financial decision makers at the country level together to make pneumococcal disease prevention a priority, our goal is to help save millions of lives," said Dr Ciro de Quadros, executive vice president of the US-based Sabin Vaccine Institute (SVI) and co-chairman of PACE. "We encourage all parties involved to make the global commitments necessary to prevent this deadly disease."
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