WHO Meeting Brings Together Leading Experts to Discuss Burden of Pneumococcal Disease

WHO Meeting Brings Together Leading Experts to Discuss Burden of Pneumococcal Disease

February 15, 2006

-- Prevention of Child Deaths Remains an Asian Priority 
-- Effective Surveillance is First Step to Eliminating
Disease 


    COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Feb. 15 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The
need for an urgent and sustained effort to document the
burden of pneumococcal disease formed the core of
discussions amongst leading scientists attending a WHO
meeting today.  With pneumococcal disease estimated to be
responsible for up to one million child deaths each year(1)
-- local efforts to measure the scale of the problem in Asia
are essential in preventing unnecessary child deaths from
Streptococcus pneumoniae -- a bacterium that causes
pneumonia and meningitis.

    Serious pneumococcal infections occur throughout life,
but young children (especially those under 2 years old) and
the elderly are at the highest risk for severe pneumococcal
disease.  Furthermore, over 90% of pneumococcal pneumonia
deaths in children occur in developing countries, and
pneumococcal meningitis kills or disables over 40% of the
children who get the disease.

    "Effective surveillance of pneumococcal disease
and its serotypes is needed to accurately map the magnitude
of the problem and help evaluate the impact of available
vaccines", commented Dr Thomas Cherian, Co-ordinator
a.i., EPI+, Vaccines and Biologicals at WHO.

    Pneumococcal disease is a major global health problem,
and of concern in Asia.  For example, at the Lady Ridgeway
Hospital (LRH) for Children in Colombo, Sri Lanka -- one of
the largest Children's hospitals in the region -- 794
pneumonia cases (32 deaths) and 295 meningitis cases (9
deaths) were reported in 2003(2).  Pneumococcal
surveillance, initiated in 2005, indicates that a sizable
proportion of these cases could be due to infections by
Streptococcus pneumoniae. 

    Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe, the Chief Epidemiologist of the
Ministry of Health, is pleased that Sri Lanka is a part of
the South Asian Pneumococcal Alliance (SAPNA) and that
pneumococcal surveillance conducted in Sri Lanka is based
on sound methodology with high standards of quality
control.  He also emphasised the value and the importance
of technical and financial assistance by WHO and GAVI's
PneumoADIP in supporting and sustaining effective
pneumococcal surveillance activities in Sri Lanka. 

    Dr. Sarath de Silva, the Consultant Paediatrician at
the LRH said that the improved Microbiology Laboratory
support now provides clinicians with the opportunity to
identify pneumococci as a leading cause of meningitis and
pneumonia in children.  In 2005, Streptococcus pneumoniae
were isolated from specimens from 3 meningitis patients and
9 pneumonia patients. 

    Dr. Kumudu Karunarathne, the Consultant Microbiologist,
also at the LRH, commented that a high level of resistant
pneumococci to commonly used antibiotics was a very
significant finding in 2005.  The fact that over 90% of the
Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates are resistant to
penicillin is of greatest concern, and all clinicians in
the country should be aware of this fact.  

    Fortunately, new vaccines to prevent deadly
pneumococcal infections are now available and widely used
in many countries in North America and Europe.  As Dr.
Katharine O'Brien, Deputy Director for Surveillance and
Research at GAVI's PneumoADIP explained: "with
systematic surveillance in place and a coordinated effort
to introduce pneumococcal vaccines we could save millions
of children's lives and make a significant move towards
meeting a key UN Millennium Development Goal of reducing
child mortality by two thirds by 2015".

    The Pneumococcal Surveillance Investigators meeting was
sponsored by the World Health Organisation and GAVI's
PneumoADIP(3) and brought together experts from a number of
Asian countries including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia,
Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and
Viet Nam.

    The importance placed on this meeting reflects the
global community's increasing focus on pneumococcal
disease, and the urgent need for a global solution.  Only
last week BBC World aired the second in a landmark series
of programmes looking at pneumococcal disease and
life-saving vaccines.  The documentary took a close look at
the burden of pneumococcal disease in India and Nepal, and
the effort required to introduce a vaccine in developing
countries.

    Notes to Editors

    Pneumococcal Disease

    Pneumococcal disease is an infection caused by
Streptococcus pneumoniae. When these bacteria invade the
lungs, they cause the most common kind of bacterial
pneumonia and can then invade the bloodstream (bacteremia)
and/or the tissues and fluids surrounding the brain and
spinal cord (meningitis). 

    According to WHO, pneumococcal pneumonia and meningitis
are responsible for 800,000 to 1 million child deaths each
year and more than 90 percent of pneumococcal pneumonia
deaths in children occur in developing countries. 
Furthermore, approximately 500,000 children die each year
from diarrhoeal disease caused by rotavirus, and another 2
million are hospitalized.  Since rotavirus diarrhoea is a
global infection, nearly every child in the world will
suffer an episode of diarrhoea caused by rotavirus before 5
years of age.

    South Asian Pneumococcal Alliance (SAPNA)

    Sri Lanka became a member of the SAPNA in 2003 and
started Laboratory based surveillance of pneumococcal
infections in 2005 at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for
Children in Colombo.  The Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry
of Health coordinates the surveillance activities.  It plans
to expand surveillance activities to cover the whole Colombo
district.

    World Health Organisation (WHO)

    The World Health Organization is the United Nations
specialized agency for health.  It was established on 7
April 1948. WHO's objective, as set out in its
Constitution, is the attainment by all peoples of the
highest possible level of health.  Health is defined in
WHO's Constitution as a state of complete physical, mental
and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease
or infirmity.

    Pneumococcal Vaccines Accelerated Development and
Introduction Plan (PneumoADIP)

    The goal of PneumoADIP is to shorten the time between
the use of a new vaccine in industrialized countries and
its introduction in developing countries by reducing demand
uncertainty and achieving an affordable, sustainable supply
of vaccines.  This novel approach is funded by the Global
Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) through its
partner the Vaccine Fund.  PneumoADIP is located at the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  The
mission of PneumoADIP is to improve child survival and
health by accelerating the evaluation of and access to new
life saving pneumococcal vaccines for the world's children.
 For more information, please visit:
http://www.preventpneumo.org .

    GAVI Alliance  

    The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (now
the GAVI Alliance) was launched in 2000 to increase
immunization rates and reverse widening global disparities
in access to vaccines.  Governments in industrialized and
developing countries, UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank,
non-governmental organizations, foundations, vaccine
manufacturers, and public health and research institutions
work together as partners in the Alliance, to achieve
common immunization goals, in the recognition that only
through a strong and united effort can much higher levels
of support for global immunization be generated.  Funds
channeled through GAVI's financing arm, The GAVI Fund
(formerly The Vaccine Fund), are used to help strengthen
health and immunization services, accelerate access to
selected vaccines and new vaccine technologies --
especially vaccines that are new or under-used, and improve
injection safety.  In addition to substantial funding from
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Vaccine Fund
has been financed by ten governments to date-Canada,
Denmark, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,
Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States-
as well as the European Union and private contributors.

    (1) World Health Organization. Pneumococcal vaccines.
The Weekly Epidemiol 
        Record 2003;14:110-9

    (2) Annual Health Bulletin, LRH, 2003
 
    (3) Pneumococcal Vaccines Accelerated Development and
Introduction Plan 
        (PneumoADIP) based at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health, 
        USA

    For more information, please contact:

     Hans Kvist, Director, Communications,
     GAVI's PneumoADIP 
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

     Selina Haylock, Consultant,
     Ruder Finn Communications
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

     Dr. Ranjith Batuwanthudawe, Principal Investigator,
     SAPNA Sri Lanka Project, 
     Epidemiology Unit, Ministry of Health
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail] 

SOURCE  GAVI's PneumoADIP