Phase 2 of Pneumococcal vaccine campaign to kick off in December

Phase two of Pneumococcal vaccine campaign for kindergarten students is due to be launched in December, School Health Department Director Dr Ebtisam Al-Howaidi announced Tuesday. Al-Howaidi said in a press conference that around 44,000 students from government schools and 37,000 others from private ones will benefit from this campaign, bringing the total number of students to 82,000. The campaign was approved by the higher national committee chaired by Health Ministry Undersecretary for Public Health Qais Al-Duwari as a precautionary step to combating all diseases. The vaccination campaign will be carried out by a medical staff from the School Health Department and Precautionary Health Department distributed at schools in all of the country's governorates. On her part, assistant chief at the Health Ministry's disease control unit Dr. Najla Al-Ayyadi cautioned against children who suffer from high fever and allergies from taking this vaccine to prevent the appearance of any side effects. However, she noted that more than one million vaccination injections of (PCV 13 and PCV 7) were given to children since 2006 without any side effects. She added that the new Pneumococcal vaccine, a replacement of the old one, has been given to nearly 250,000 children. The new vaccine is manufactured by the same company of the old one. It is currently used in the US and Canada and it is approved by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Medicines Agency and World Health Organization. It is also used in all of the GCC countries. Head of services' unit at the ministry Dr. Adel Al-Tirkiet said, meanwhile, that children born in 2008/2009 are the subject target of this campaign. He pointed out that the campaign will last 30 days. Parents of students who miss out on getting their vaccination shots in schools will be notified. The Vaccine is also available at all health centers across the country. Vaccinating against Pneumococcal, in its 13 strains, is one of the latest creations in the field of modern medicine. Pneumococcal infection is considered the major cause of death among children aged under five, representing 20 percent among other infectious diseases worldwide and averaging around a million deaths a year. It also causes 70 percent of lung infections among children, is responsible for over 40 percent of bacterial meningitis cases and is a result of a third of bacterial infections in the blood and middle ear among children aged under five.