June 2007

In Kenya, 12% of children born, die before celebrating their fifth birthday yet vaccines against pneumonia and meningitis can reduce this considerably. Of the 1.2 million babies born in Kenya yearly about 50,000 of them die within the first month. In an effort to increase public awareness and the need to give newborns special care, the Kenya Paediatric Association (KPA) together with The Kenya Obstetrics and Gynaecology Society (KOGs) set out for a run in Nairobi dubbed ‘Running for Survival’ on the 16th June 2007.

“On 4th April 2007, Dr Julian Lob-Levyt, Executive Secretary of the GAVI Alliance wrote to the Ministers of Health in 72 developing countries announcing GAVI support to introduce pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and to elicit expressions of interest.  The 7-valent commercially available PCV, Prevenar, will be made available to developing countries from 2008.  In determining their interest Ministers were asked to evaluate the health impact of preventing pneumococcal vaccine in their country, the operational implications of vaccine introduction and the financial costs of vaccine introduction. In most cases, introducing countries will be asked to make a financial co-payment of $0.15 per dose which compares with a commercial price of over $40 in the USA.  Dr Lob-Levyt requested a response in the form of non-binding expressions of interest by 18th May 2008.  The supply of vaccine is limited and priority will be given to countries with a known burden of disease, ability to monitor vaccine impact, capability to upgrade cold-chain capacity and with evidence of national commitment to the co-financing policy.  Within East Africa, the Ministers of Health in Kenya and Uganda have expressed a positive interest in the vaccine.”

Haydom Lutheran Hospital - new surveillance site in Tanzania

March 2007, Haydom Lutheran Hospital (HLH)was inaugurated as the third site for surveillance of pneumococci and H. influenzae in Tanzania.

Haydom Lutheran Hospital was established by the Norwegian Lutheran Mission in 1955 with a capacity of 50 beds. It is in the Manyara region of Tanzania about 300 km. from Arusha. It has been expanding steadily and has a current capacity of 350 beds. It has also been part of Tanzania’s central health plans since 1967. HLH catchment area extends over five neighbouring districts in a mainly remote rural population where malaria, TB, lower respiratory tract infections and gastroenteritis are common.

February 2007 - Ray of hope for the third world to combat pneumonia by Dr Tareq Salahuddin on the importance and feasibility of pneumococcal vaccine in Bangladesh

February 2007

In our developing nations, millions of children die each year from vaccine preventable diseases. In a bid to curb these mortality rate, vaccines are utilized against these diseases. BBC World scheduled a four-part documentary called ‘Vaccine Hunters’ which examined the science of modern vaccines, what it takes to deliver them to the most needy, and the challenges ahead. For more information on the documentary series visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/.