Pakistani and foreign health professionals on Saturday asked the Government of Pakistan (GoP) to include Pneumococcal Vaccine (PCV-7) in National Immunisation Programme so as to check the mortality of children due Pneumococcal disease (PD).
They were speaking at the launching ceremony of Asian Strategic Alliance for Pneumococcal Disease Prevention (ASAP) Pakistan Chapter here al a local hotel on Saturday. They disclosed that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified the inclusion of PCV-7 in national immunisation programmes as a priority particularly in countries where the mortality rate of children under 5-year is greater than 50/1000 live births, or where more than 50,000 die annually.
Many health authorities have already recognised the importance of protecting infants and young children against PD. The PCV-7 is available in nearly 100 countries and is part of the routine national childhood immunisation schedule in around 30 countries world-wide. Currently, the Pneumococcal Conjugated Vaccine or PCV-7, is the first and only vaccine to prevent invasive Pneumococcal disease in infants and children younger than 24 months.
It also helps to protect older children up to 9 years old. PCV-7 is used for active immunisation and helps to protect against disease caused by seven stereotypes (strains) of the bacterium Streptococcus Pneumonia, also known as Pneumococcus, they added. They maintained that Pneumococcal disease is one of the most infectious killer diseases today.
"Tragically, between 800.000 and 1 million children below five years old die as a result of PD each year. Every hour that ticks by between 80 and 112 children die by the hand of this killer disease or roughly between 1900 and 2,700 child deaths a day around the world", they said. In developing countries around the world, PD is also considered one of the most important causes of children's death, they added.
Professor Iqbal Memon, Convenor ASAP, Pakistan Chapter, said: "As doctors and parents, we know the devastating impact the death of a child has on everyone. But you might not be able to feel the pain and the loss, until it happens to your own child. We want to tell everyone that this situation is avoidable - Pneumococcal disease is preventable by vaccination".
"We strongly feel that if more parents, physicians, policy makers and decision makers know about the disease and its prevention, urgent steps will be taken to drastically reduce the disease burden. We appeal to the Government of Pakistan to adopt IPD Vaccination in National Immunisation Programme to save millions of children from killer Pneumococcal disease", he said.
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