Vaccine successful in
eliminating deadly disease in Uganda
By Sun News Publishing
Sunday,
May
4, 2008
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•Museveni,
Ugandan President
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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Last month, Uganda announced that it has nearly eliminated
deadly Hib meningitis in young children through the use of
a single vaccine. This comes just five years after that vaccine
was first introduced into the country’s immunization
programme. As a result, Hib vaccine prevented an estimated
28,000 cases of pneumonia and meningitis and 5000 deaths in
Uganda each year.
This is a dramatic example of how this childhood vaccine can
save thousands of young lives and save thousands more children
from life-long suffering. When it doesn’t kill, Hib
meningitis, a dangerous inflammation of the lining of the
brain and spinal cord, can still cause deafness, paralysis,
mental retardation and learning disabilities.
As a paediatrician, I have witnessed these tragedies first-hand.
They are made all the more devastating by the fact that this
disease strikes children in the first five years of their
lives, when they are at their most vulnerable. Yet Uganda
’s Hib vaccine program has eliminated this public health
threat with speed and determination.
Hib disease is caused by the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae
type b, or "Hib." In addition to causing meningitis,
Hib along with Streptococcus pneumoniae are the two leading
causes of childhood pneumonia – the world’s largest
killer of children under 5. For every child with Hib meningitis,
there may be five to ten others with Hib-related pneumonia.
Hib kills almost 400,000 children every year, the vast majority
in developing nations. It is also linked to about 3 million
cases of serious childhood illnesses. Yet evidence has shown
that both Hib pneumonia and meningitis are preventable with
the same vaccination.
This is why, for all the headlines it has sparked around the
world, Uganda ’s success is not surprising.
Across the globe, vaccination programmes have helped eradicate
diseases like smallpox. Vaccines have also made dramatic progress
toward eliminating measles and polio. Uganda has given us
further evidence that when vaccination programmes are carefully
implemented and closely monitored to ensure their success,
millions benefit.
Hib is only one of the sources of disease that threaten child
survival. Yet it is a source that can clearly be defeated.
Uganda ’s announcement follows similar results in Kenya
, the Gambia , Bangladesh, Chile , Britain and the United
States , where studies demonstrated that Hib vaccine cut disease
incidence by 88 percent or more in five years or less.
Reducing childhood mortality can be a difficult and tragic
task, because limited resources often prevent us from addressing
every disease that puts our children at risk. Yet for all
its benefits, the Hib vaccine has proven to be extremely cost-effective.
Last year, a study in Kenya demonstrated that widespread use
of the Hib vaccine has saved the government approximately
US$871,539 each year in averted treatment costs. This while
preventing 4,033 meningitis cases and 10,166 pneumonia cases
and saving the lives of about 5,408 infants and young children.
In Uganda , the government obtained 16.5 million doses of
a 5-in-1 vaccine that also protects against diphtheria, pertussis,
tetanus and hepatitis B at a discounted price, through the
support of the GAVI Alliance, an international donor. 83 percent
of countries in Africa that are eligible for this support
have or will soon include Hib vaccine in their national immunization
programs. Of the 36 GAVI-eligible countries in the region,
Nigeria is the only country that has not yet moved forward
to adopt the vaccine.
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa , yet one out
of every five children does not make it to their fifth birthday.
Like Uganda , we have the opportunity to save our children
from some of the most common, deadly and debilitating diseases.
For our children, pneumonia causes over 200,000 deaths each
year and it is the vaccines for Hib and Pneumococcus that
can eliminate a large portion of these deaths. It is interventions
like this that will help the world achieve Millennium Development
Goal number 4, to reduce by two-thirds the mortality rate
among children under 5.
Uganda’s success is admirable, because it demonstrates
that we have the knowledge and the means to protect these
most precious of lives. Discussions in Nigeria regarding implementation
of this and future vaccines are promising, but let’s
hope a decision can be made soon to start saving our children
from preventable disease.
• Dr. A.G. Falade is Head, Nigeria Society for Pediatric
Infectious Diseases and Professor at the Dept of Paediatrics
College of Medicine, University of Ibadan and University College
Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria.
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