Pneumococcal vaccine roll out cuts hospitalisations by 70 percent

New data shows that South Africa’s expensive pneumococcal vaccine roll out has cut childhood hospitalisations due to meningitis, pneumonia and rotavirus by 70 percent in just five years, according to Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi. Motsoaledi announced the new figures while speaking at the opening of the African regional consultation on the United Nations’ new Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health. Still in draft form, the strategy is set to guide global strategies to reduce maternal, child and adolescent deaths. New data from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases has also shown that the vaccine led to declines in drug-resistant infections. In 2009, South Africa became the first African country to introduce the expensive pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. At the time of the vaccine’s introduction, Deputy Director of the Pneumonococal Diseases Research Unit at Witwatersrand University, Dr Shabir Madhi, estimated the vaccine would add R700 million to the R100 million spent...