New pneumococcal vaccine for children immunisation programme

27 August 2010

A new pneumococcal vaccine (PCV10) will replace the existing one (PCV7) in the Government’s childhood immunization programme (CIP) in October 2010.

The tender for the new pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) supply has been awarded to Zuellig Pharma Ltd for the product, SynflorixR, a 10-valent PCV manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline. The tender result was gazetted today (August 27).

The new vaccine will be provided free of charge to eligible children at the Department of Health (DH)’s Maternal & Child Health Centres.

The routine immunisation schedule of PCV10 is the same as that of PCV7, i.e., three primary doses at two, four and six months of age followed by one booster dose given after one year of age.

A DH spokesman said that the new vaccine was as good as the existing vaccine in terms of efficacy and safety.

"Children who have been receiving PCV7 can switch directly to PCV10," he said.

"Parents may also choose to bring children to receive pneumococcal vaccination from private doctors at their own cost."

As of August 20, 2010, more than 263,000 doses of PCV have been administrated to over 128,000 children since the inclusion of PCV in the CIP in September 2009.

Pneumococcus bacterium not uncommonly causes invasive pneumococcal diseases (IPD) in young children, such as chest infection, blood stream infection and meningitis, etc.

As no pneumococcal vaccine covers all known serotypes of pneumococci, the spokesman reminded members of the public to observe personal and environmental hygiene to prevent infection. Most pneumococcal infections can be treated effectively by antibiotics.