September 18, 2006 – New York City.  Pneumonia kills more children under five than any other illness – more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined, according to a new report from UNICEF and WHO.

The report, “Pneumonia: The Forgotten Killer of Children,” was launched in New York at a special forum sponsored by UNICEF, The Prime Minister of Norway, and The Lancet.  PneumoADIP’s Executive Director attended the forum, which was hosted by Riz Khan of Al-Jazeera International, and included a panel of participants led by Ann Venneman, Executive Director, UNICEF, and included Queen Rania of Jordan, Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway and others.

The report highlights the urgent need for prevention and treatment of pneumonia, which claims the lives of more than 2 million children each year. It is intended as a call to action to reduce child deaths from pneumonia through the use of existing effective interventions. Prevention measures such as vaccination hold the promise of saving millions of children from dying of pneumonia.

The report provides an overview of the clinical basis for pneumonia diagnosis and treatment, highlights the most affected populations, and outlines key actions needed to reduce deaths attributed to pneumonia. Results provided in the report reveal that only about 1 in 5 caregivers are able to recognize the symptoms of pneumonia; only about half of pneumonia-infected children receive appropriate medical care, and based on limited data available, less than 20 per cent of children with pneumonia receive antibiotics, the recommended treatment.

The report concludes that about 600,000 lives could be saved each year at a cost of $600 million if antibiotic treatment were universally delivered to children with pneumonia. Furthermore, the number of lives saved could more than double to 1.3 million if both prevention and treatment interventions, including vaccine administration, were delivered universally.

For more information about the September 18th launch event and outreach, visit www.preventpneumo.org

To read the Pneumonia report, visit http://www.unicef.org/french/publications/index_35626.html

September 6, 2006 – Washington, DC.  PATH and Intercell AG will partner to advance the development of a novel vaccine against pneumococcal disease. PATH’s pneumococcal vaccine development program is funded by the Gates Foundation and will provide $7.3m for Intercell’s preclinical development in preparation of Phase I clinical trials for the novel vaccine candidate. 

This is an exciting development in the field of pneumococcal vaccine development.  To this point, no pneumococcal “common protein” vaccine candidates has progressed beyond phase 2 testing.  This announcement is the first visible sign of the potential for the infusion of Gates funding through PATH to begin moving new candidates into the pipeline.  Typically, vaccine development requires 8-10 years to go from pre-clinical testing to licensure.

The past several years have seen the Centro de Investigaçao em Saúde de Manhiça in Mozambique emerge as a center for excellence in infectious disease research in Africa.  Perhaps best known for the work of Pedro Alonso and his team on the efficacy of an exciting malaria vaccine candidate, RTSS, the site has also down outstanding work in the field of invasive bacterial disease surveillance and epidemiology. 

Two recent papers from their surveillance highlight the need to evaluate vaccine introduction on the incidence of vaccine preventable disease, rather than simply on the proportion of serotypes causing invasive disease.  Roca et al (Trop Med Intl Health 2006; 11:1422-31) show that the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease in children living in this rural areas of southern Mozambique showed that S. pneumoniae was the most common cause of bacteremia and that the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease was >400 cases per 100,000 children <5 years old per year.  These incidence rates are consistent with those observed recently from other centers in Africa and 4 to10 fold higher than the rates observed in the USA, UK, Australia, that is, countries that are routinely using pneumococcal conjugate vaccines now. 

A second paper by Vallès et al (Trop Med Intl Health 2006; 11:358-66) describes the distribution of serotypes from patients with invasive disease and from nasopharyngeal carriage.  In children <5 years old, the serotypes included in the 7-valent vaccine (plus serotype 6A, a serotype that is covered by cross-protection from the serotype 6B in the 7-valent vaccine) account for only 27% of invasive disease.  Serotypes 1 and 5 are shown to account for 50% of disease in this age group. 

What is useful about the Mozambique papers is the ability to overlay the serotype distribution with the incidence of disease to determine the “vaccine preventable incidence”.  On the basis of the serotype data alone, one might consider that the 7-valent vaccine would not be a useful vaccine, and opt to wait for another vaccine.  However, when one multiplies the incidence rates by the serotype distribution it becomes clear that the “vaccine preventable incidence” – 112 cases per 100,000 – in children less than 5 years old per year exceeds the burden of preventable disease in countries like the USA, UK, and elsewhere.

PneumoADIP is interested in hearing back from you on this issue.  Do you have an experience with using serotype distribution vs. “vaccine preventable incidence” that would be useful to share with others?  If so, please email us at pneuadip@jhsph.edu or hekim@jhsph.edu

PVS Request for Letters of Inquiry for pneumococcal vaccine research
PATH Vaccine Solutions (PVS) is seeking proposals for projects to advance development of new pneumococcal vaccines for administration to infants in low-income countries. PVS is interested in proposals from vaccine manufacturers and academic, public health, and other research institutions for projects that will accelerate vaccine development to serve the countries in greatest need. 

PVS invites proposals under two distinct categories: (1) Vaccine discovery and development and (2) Research activities in support of vaccine development.

PVS’s ultimate goal is to advance development of a pneumococcal vaccine that will be safe, effective, and affordable for distribution by public health systems in developing countries.

The deadline for letters of inquiry is October 31, 2006.

For more information and submission guidelines, click here.