June 16, 2007 – Nairobi, Kenya. On the Day of the African Child, the Kenya Pediatric Association in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Kenya Obstetrical and Gynaecology Society, (and with support from GAVI’s PneumoADIP and other sponsors) orchestrated the first “Running for Survival” event to build awareness and generate public support for improving child survival in Kenya. Kenyan celebrity Paul Tergat, the world record holder in the marathon, and the Director of Medical Service of MOH, Dr James Nyikal, led a team of top Kenyan athletes and over 1000 participants in the 10km run and 3km walk. Participants wore t-shirts with powerful messages such as: “We had the power to save 100,000 child deaths in Kenya this year”; “Should 8,000 Kenyan mothers continue to die at child birth?”

The event organizers are already planning for the next year’s run to build on the success of this first event. “Awareness of child survival as an issue has been low so we envision this as an annual event leading up to 2015, the milestone for the Millennium Development Goals,” said Dr Fred Were, President of KPA and a local champion for child survival, including the introduction of pneumococcal and Hib vaccines. He added, “The collaboration among the health professional groups and the support from local municipalities and local and international sponsors made this event possible and we look forward to working together for a bigger and better event next year!”

The experience of Dr. Were and his colleagues shows what’s possible with communications around child survival, including pneumonia prevention messages. In the lead up to the event, Dr. Were, Dr. Mike English and others published articles in all the important local papers raising awareness of the interventions available to improve child survival in Kenya and neighboring countries. Congratulations, Dr. Were!

May 7, 2007 – Washington, DC. The Sabin Vaccine Institute launched the Pneumococcal Awareness Council of Experts (PACE) at a National Press Club briefing in Washington, DC. PACE is a multi-year effort that aims to raise awareness of the burden of pneumococcal disease and that urges policy-makers and others to take action to prevent and control pneumococcal disease. The inauguration of PACE follows the recent commitment on behalf of the governments of Italy, UK, Canada, Norway, Russia, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation of $1.5 billion to launch the first Advance Market Commitment (AMC) to help speed development and availability of new vaccines. PACE is co-chaired by Dr. Ciro de Quadros, of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and Dr. Orin Levine, of GAVI’s PneumoADIP, and includes 15 of the world’s leading experts in infectious diseases and vaccines. For more information, visit: www.sabin.org/PACE

May 29, 2007 – Washington, DC. The Center for Global Development recently released an important new report on demand forecasting among public and private partnerships for a range of health technologies, including vaccines, “A Risky Business: Saving Money and Improving Global Health Through Better Demand Forecasts.” When PneumoADIP began in 2003, vaccine manufacturers consistently cited the lack of a credible, accurate strategic demand forecast for pneumococcal vaccines as the main obstacle to successful partnership between industry and public sector. In response, PneumoADIP dedicated more than 2 years to developing a credible demand forecast and to developing innovative methods for demand forecasting.

When CGD started investigating the issue more widely, they found that this problem was not isolated to vaccines. To address this issue, the team at CGD convened a Working Group - the same approach that they found successful for vaccine financing (their Making Markets for Vaccines Working developed the idea that later became the $1.5 Billion Advance Market Commitment for pneumococcal vaccines). Their Working Group, which included PneumoADIP’s Director for Vaccine Financing and Supply, Angeline Nanni, reviewed the problem and developed recommendations for actions to improve demand forecasting in the public sector. To read the policy brief and the full report, visit: http://www.cgdev.org/section/initiatives/_active/demandforecasting

Developing country manufacturers are an important part of the global supply of life-saving vaccines. Recently, the Developing Country Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN) launched its new website, www.dcvmn.com to increase awareness of the roles that their members are playing.

PneumoADIP recently had the opportunity to discuss with Dr. Suresh Jadhav, President of the DCVMN, on the evolving role of the network for pneumococcal vaccines production and supply. Dr. Suresh Jadhav is the Executive Director of the Serum Institute of India Ltd a primary supplier of life-saving vaccines in developing countries and a former member on the GAVI Board. Click here to read the interview

PCV7 Cost-effectiveness Evaluation. Economic evaluations of cost-effectiveness are increasingly required by governments and policy-makers when considering vaccine introduction. A recent study reviewed 15 economic analyses of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines between the years 2002 and 2006, in terms of methods, assumptions, results and conclusions. Overall these studies concluded that the cost-effectiveness of PCV7 vaccination programs can be viewed as attractive in developed countries. This effect is contingent upon the net long-term impact of vaccination continuing to be beneficial, which will be highly influenced by herd immunity effects, serotype replacement, antibiotic resistance and cross reactivity, factors which should countries should continue to monitor effectively. Furthermore, cost-effectiveness of PCV7 vaccination analysis is dependent on precise measurement of the current burden of pneumococcal disease, the duration of vaccine protection and the long-term effects of vaccination on the epidemiology of pneumococcal disease. These are factors which developed and developing nations should continue to evaluate prior to and following introduction of the vaccine. Beutels et al. Vaccine. 2007; 25: 1355-1367.

Health economist, Anushua Sinha, published a cost effectiveness paper earlier this year, “Cost-effectiveness of pneumococcal conjugate vaccination in the prevention of child mortality: an international economic analysis.” Lancet. 2007 Feb 3;369(9559):389-96. To read her interview, click here.

Hubben et al developed a web-based tool to facilitate health economic evaluations for policy makers.  The tool allows the user to interact with a health-economic model to evaluate predefined and customized scenarios and perform sensitivity analysis of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines. The usefulness of this tool was tested for the cost effectiveness evaluation of PCV7 in The Netherlands (Vaccine 25 (2007) 3669–3678). For the web-based tool, visit: http://pcv.healtheconomics.nl/index.html

PCV7 Impact in Thailand. The serotype coverage of PCV7, PCV9, PCV11 and PCV13 among the isolates causing invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in Thai children younger than 5 years of age were determined in a recent study conducted by researchers at Mahidol University, Thailand. A total of 115 S. pneumoniae isolates were serotyped between 2000 and 2005. It was found that 69.6% and 22.6% of the isolates were non-susceptible to penicillin and cefotaxime in children younger than 2 years and 5 years of age, respectively. PCV7 was found to cover 89% and 100% of penicillin and cefotaxime non-susceptible isolates. These data underscore the importance of local serotype data to evaluate the potential benefit of the use of PCV. PCV7 is currently available in Thailand, but has not been included in the Expanded Program of Immunization (EPI). While further studies on cost-effectiveness and overall impact of the vaccine are required, the results of this study will contribute to the decision to potentially implement PCV7 in Thai children. Phongsamart et al. Vaccine. 2007; 25: 1275-1280.

Funding Opportunity. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced a research project grant funding opportunity for institution or organizations that are located in foreign, resource-constrained countries for research related to infectious diseases that are of significance to that country. Applications may be submitted between August 26 and September 26, 2007. For more information, please visit: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-07-376.html#SectionI

Employment Opportunity. The WHO Initiative for Vaccine Research (IVR) is seeking a medical officer/scientist to serve in the Immunizations, Vaccines and Biologicals (IVB) unit. Primary duties include coordinating the review of existing immunization schedules and practices, with primary emphasis on conjugate vaccines and other childhood vaccines. The deadline for application is July 30, 2007. For more information please visit: https://erecruit.who.int/public/hrd-cl-vac-view.asp?o_c=1000&jobinfo_uid_c=17072&vaclng=en

Call for Abstracts. The Bulletin of the World Health Organization (BLT) welcomes submissions of papers on childhood pneumonia for a theme issue on “childhood pneumonia: prevention and control”, projected for publication in Spring 2008. Subject areas dealing with the epidemiology of pneumonia, improved methods for the diagnosis of pneumonia, etiology of pneumonia, the impact on pneumonia mortality of case management, vaccines and environmental and nutritional interventions are particularly sought. Manuscripts should be submitted by October 1, 2007. More information can be found at: http://www.who.int/bulletin/childhood_pneumonia_theme_call_for_papers/en/