Vaccine cuts rate of major disease in African children in half

A vaccine against pneumococcal disease, which is a major killer of children in Africa, has cut the disease rate by more than half, new research has found. The study, involving Otago researcher Professor Philip Hill, monitored a population of 200,000 people in The Gambia, West Africa, before and after the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. This vaccine was designed to combat a disease that takes a grim toll on under five year olds in particular. The findings are published in the prestigious journal Lancet Infectious Diseases. Professor Hill says pneumococcal bacteria cause pneumonia, blood poisoning and meningitis across the world. “These new generation vaccines are designed specially to be effective in young children, although they have limitations. These include being only able to cover a certain number of the subtypes, known as serotypes, of the pneumococcus bacterium,” he says. The fear was that other serotypes of pneumococcus would take their place, blunting vaccine impact. In a huge...