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It is a vaccine to protect children against infections such as pneumonia and meningitis, and one that has the World Health Organization's (WHO) stamp of approval.
But the Ministry of Health (MOH), saying the situation does not warrant it as yet, recently turned down a submission for a pneumococcal disease vaccine to be included in the National Childhood Immunisation Programme.
Pneumococcal disease refers to infections caused by a bacteria; the most serious and invasive of them include pneumonia, blood poisoning and meningitis, which may cause death.
Introduced here in October 2005, the vaccine is targeted at children aged six weeks to nine years old.
In Singapore, it is compulsory for children to be vaccinated against nine conditions, including diphtheria, measles and tuberculosis.
The last vaccine to be introduced into the immunisation programme was that for hepatitis B in 1987.
Recently, pharmaceutical company Wyeth put in a submission for pneumococal conjugate vaccine to be included into the programme but the Health Ministry did not give it the nod.
"The ministry has reviewed our local situation and has decided not to incorporate the pneumococcal vaccine into the National Childhood Immunisation Programme at this point in time," said an MOH spokesperson.
This is because the hospitalisation rates for invasive pneumococcal disease in children in Singapore declined from 38 per 100,000 people aged five years and below in 2004 to 26 per 100,000 people last year.
According to a study by the KK Women's and Children's Hospital, death from pneumonia increased two-fold from 12 per cent in 1999 to 25 per cent in 2004, while that from meningitis was up by 80 per cent in the same period.
"We will … review our decision should the local disease burden increase," the spokesperson added.
In 2005, the WHO estimated that up to one million children, aged five years and below, died of pneumococcal disease every year.
"Recognising the heavy burden of pneumococcal disease occurring in young children, and the safety and efficacy of PCV-7 in this age group, the WHO considers that it should be a priority to include this vaccine in national immunisation programmes," the organisation said in a paper.
Sixteen countries — including Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States — have made it mandatory for all young children to receive the vaccine.
Dr Lee Bee Wah, a paediatrician in private practice, believes it would be ideal for every child to be vaccinated. However, Dr Lee also acknowledged that while the vaccine is especially recommended for countries where the mortality rate for children is high, Singapore does not have such a problem. - TODAY/ra
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