Parenting Australia

PREVENAR 13 – A new pneumococcal vaccine

Pneumococcal disease is caused by bacteria that invade the upper respiratory tract of healthy people. The bacteria responsible for it – Streptococcus pneumonia can cause:

• Meningitis

• Pneumonia

• Septicaemia

• Middle ear and sinus infections

According to the Australian Government’s Department of Health and Ageing, Prevenar 13 “provides protection against an additional six serotypes, which can cause Invasive Pneumococcal Disease (IPD), that are not covered by Prevenar.” Specifically, in some states like South Australia, a two-fold increase was noticed in reported cases of pneumococcal disease in children under 2, attributed to serotype 19A.

Robert Booy, Professor of Paediatrics & Child Health at the Children’s Hospital Westmead explains that the problem posed by serotype 19A is twofold - “not only is it nasty, it is hard to treat as well”. The reason behind the difficulty in treating this particular serotype is because it was found to be antibiotic resistant. Professor Booy, who is also the head of clinical research at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), recommends that “all children under 3 years of age” receive this vaccine to get the “double-advantage” it offers.

The Australian government is offering a catch-up dose of Prevenar 13 for all children between 12-35 months, even if they have received Prevenar in the past. Even though the risk of getting pneumococcal disease decreases after three years of age, Professor Booy cautions that “this risk decreases only gradually and children at four years of age are more at risk (of developing the disease) than kids who are five years old”. If parents want to have their kids over the age of 36 months vaccinated, they can do so after purchasing the vaccine.

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This article was provided by Lakshmi Singh, a freelance writer and mother of two. You can find more of her work here http://lakshmi29.wordpress.com/about/my-portfolio-3/

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