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| PNEUMOFOCUS |
BULLETIN OF GAVI'S PNEUMOADIP AT JOHNS HOPKINS BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
PNEUMO ADIP: PNEUMOCOCCAL VACCINES ACCELERATED DEVELOPMENT AND INTRODUCTION PLAN
Volume 1, No. 7 July, 2004
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EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR'S NOTE |
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This month's issue is one part reminder, one part newspaper, and one part advertisement. It's a reminder to check our website for information on our Small Grants program and our solicitation for potential vaccine evaluation sites in Asia. In this issue Heather Parsons reports on the recent experience with pneumococcal vaccine introduction in Australia which highlights the political side of this process. Lastly, we're advertising to make people aware of the many useful disease burden tools available on the WHO website. Lastly, I want to recognize our Research Project Coordinator, Farzana Muhib, for her outstanding work in developing and organizing our Small Grants process. The first round of Small Grants closed on June 15th and we're pleased to have received 15 applications from 9 countries. The consistency and quality of these applications are reflection of the investigators, and of Farzana's work to develop the forms and applications materials.
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| FUNDING INFORMATION |
| Small
Grants Program Our next small grants deadline is October 15th. Please visit us online at www.preventpneumo.org for more information and application procedures. Solicitation for Potential Asian Field
Sites |
| THE POLITICS OF VACCINATION |
| Nearly
two years after medical experts made an evidence-based case to the
Australian government arguing for universal childhood immunization
with pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, the country’s children
will begin receiving it, Minister of Health Tony Abbott announced
June 11. All children born since January 1, 2003 will receive a free,
three dose regimen of the vaccine. The government has estimated that
the program, which will vaccinate all babies born in the country through
the end of 2006, will cost 178 million Australian dollars. But lead officials of the opposition Labor Party say the program is still too small and has come too late, a charge backed by national groups of parents and doctors, and that the conservative government of Prime Minister John Howard has only funded the vaccinations grudgingly, after months of sustained public pressure. Some medical professionals had been pushing for pneumococcal vaccination since Prevenar was licensed in 2000. Doctors serving the largely impoverished Aboriginal community, where pneumococcal disease is particularly frequent and serious and where parents frequently cannot afford the vaccines, argued for a government funded solution and won. Since 2001, the Australian government has provided freed vaccinations for Aboriginal children and other ‘high-risk’ children. But those pushing for universal immunization of all Australian children had little luck convincing either the government or the opposition Labor Party that funding for this new vaccine ought to be a political priority. But the public opinion environment changed last fall, when Wyeth introduced its vaccine to prevent meningococcal serogroup C meningitis, and millions of middle class parents persuaded the government to provide it. That fight raised the public profile of meningitis, and the parents´ groups, now organized, turned their attention to the pneumococcal vaccine, which would prevent the most deadly cases of meningitis. Labor went one step further, calling upon Howard´s government to provide free childhood vaccines for pneumococcus, varicella, and polio. The government initially argued that these vaccines would be too expensive, but after continued public pressure the Ministry of Health negotiated a deal with Wyeth, which lowered the cost of the vaccines in exchange for a guaranteed bulk order sufficient to treat every child born in Australia for the next two years. Though they cheer the program’s funding, the case has taught public health professionals that evidence alone may not be sufficient to assure vaccine introduction. Change in government policy is likely to come only as a result of vast political pressure. ¨For me it’s been a revelation,´ said Dr. Kim Mulholland of the Department of Paediatrics at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Victoria. ¨I thought public health decisions weren’t made this way anymore.¨ |
| AUGUST IS MENINGITIS AWARENESS AND PREVENTION MONTH |
Recognizing the need for greater knowledge of the dangers of meningitis, the Meningitis Foundation of America has declared August 2004 the first annual Meningitis Awareness and Prevention Month. Activities will focus on increasing the awareness of the signs and symptoms of meningitis in the US, and encouraging the use of the several life saving vaccines available to protect against this deadly disease. For more information please visit www.musa.org |
| A WEALTH OF RESOURCES ON WHO WEBSITE |
The World Health Organization
has recently made its valuable review of global Hib meningitis available
on its Ïmmunizations, Vaccines and Biologicals¨ website
at www.who.int/vaccines-documents/doxgen/h3doxlist.htm.
For anyone who hasn’t seen it this is an exhaustive analysis
of the relevant global data on Hib meningitis, with summary graphs
and detailed tables.
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