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Lancet press release
Vaccine Prevents Deadly Pneumonia in African
Children, New Clinical Trial Confirms
*First major randomized, controlled vaccine clinical trial in nearly 20 years
to show significant reduction in child mortality*
Washington, DC; March 25, 2005 - Global health leaders today presented new research
showing that vaccinating infants against Streptococcus pneumoniae – a bacterium that
causes deadly pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis – could substantially reduce death and
serious illness among children in the developing world. If used widely, a pneumococcal
conjugate vaccine could prevent hundreds of thousands of child deaths each year.
In a four-year study a team led by the UK Medical Research Council’s Felicity Cutts
vaccinated and followed over 17,000 young children in the Gambia to study whether a
vaccine that has been shown to prevent pneumococcal disease in the United States, Finland
and urban South Africa would also work in rural Africa. The results, to be published in the
March 26 issue of The Lancet show that the vaccine reduced childhood mortality by 16
percent in children who received the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. This study is the first
major randomized, controlled vaccine clinical trial in nearly twenty years to show a
statistically significant reduction in overall child mortality.
"The results of this vaccine trial hold great promise for improving health and saving lives in
resource-poor populations, said Dr. Lee Jong-wook, the Director-General of the World Health
Organization (WHO). “The international community's task now is to continue to work together
productively to make the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine widely available to children in Africa,
as lives are lost every minute to pneumococcal disease. Immunizing children with pneumococcal
conjugate vaccine in developing countries will be a critical intervention towards achieving a two-thirds
reduction in the under-five mortality rate, a Millennium Development Goal."
Streptococcus pneumoniae, or pneumococcus, is the bacterium that causes pneumococcal
disease. When they invade the lungs, these bacteria cause the most common kind of bacterial
pneumonia and can then invade the bloodstream (bacteremia) or the tissues and fluids
surrounding the brain and spinal cord (meningitis). According to WHO, pneumococcal
pneumonia and meningitis are responsible for about 1.6 million deaths each year, even more
than malaria. And more than 90 percent of pneumococcal pneumonia deaths in children occur in
developing countries.
Previous studies had shown that this vaccine was effective in reducing the number of
pneumococcal infections in children in the United States, Finland and in urban South Africa. But
many of the children suffering from pneumococcal disease in Africa live in rural areas with high
infant mortality rates, significant rates of malaria transmission and very limited access to
healthcare. The Gambia is representative of these areas, and the results of the study suggest
that the deaths caused by pneumococcal infections in rural Africa are preventable. “The trial
results are highly positive and promising, and most importantly, they demonstrate that
pneumococcal vaccination can prevent these serious infections even in a rural African
setting,” said Professor Cutts.
Sponsors of and participants in this successful trial included the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health; the World Health
Organization (WHO); PATH’s Children’s Vaccine Program (CVP); the U.S. Agency for
International Development; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals provided the trial
vaccine.
Summary of trial results
In this trial:
- This vaccine significantly reduced the need for hospitalization: children receiving the
pneumococcal vaccine had 15 percent fewer hospital admissions than those who did not.
- The nine-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine was 77 percent effective in preventing
pneumococcal infections caused by the vaccine serotypes.
- As a result, there were 37 percent fewer cases of pneumonia in the children who
received the vaccine compared with children who received the control vaccine.
Working with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), Wyeth
Pharmaceuticals has offered to provide the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine Prevnar to The
Gambia for introduction into their national immunization program. Wyeth is also working with
GAVI’s PneumoADIP and other public health partners to facilitate access to Prevnar and
future pneumococcal conjugate vaccines with expanded serotype coverage to children in
developing countries.
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Download
Press release (PDF - 81K)
Additional information
GAVI statement
Notes to editors
Please also visit the PneumoADIP website for further information and to view press materials: www.preventpneumo.org
Contact
Please see the pdf version of the press release for contacts
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