Kids to get two vaccines in one go

Bangladesh which has won global awards for its massive coverage in routine immunisation has introduced two new vaccines for use on Saturday.

One, pneumonia vaccine, is completely new to the system which is aimed at saving hundreds of thousands of kids as pneumonia accounts for more than one-fifth of under-5 deaths.
 
The other, injectable version of polio vaccine, will be given to children in one shot along with the current oral doses for at least next three years before a complete switch to the injectable version is made.
 
Health Minister Mohammed Nasim inaugurated those vaccines on Saturday at Dhaka Shishu Hospital even as nurses administered them to children.
 
The pneumonia vaccine will be given in three doses – when the babies are six weeks, 10 weeks and 18 weeks old –for lifelong protection, said Dr Tajul A Bari, assistant director of the government’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI).
 
He said the injectable form of polio vaccine (IPV) would be given along with the last dose of the three doses oral vaccine (OPV), on the 14th week.
 
Why IPV, OPV together?
 
Bangladesh has become polio-free along with its neighbouring countries of the WHO’s South-East Asia region by feeding children vaccine orally (OPV).

The region, however, is advised to continue vaccination to maintain the polio-free status as India’s neighbour Pakistan, which belongs to a separate WHO region, Eastern Mediterranean, is not polio-free.
 
But Bangladesh like 139 other countries who relied on OPV has now been asked by the WHO to introduce injectable form.
 
The EPI assistant director Bari said they were focused on making a complete switch to IPV by 2018.

“But in between we have to give both so that children get protection from vaccine-derived viruses,” he said.
 
He explained that the oral vaccine comprises three strains, trivalent, of which type 2 had been eradicated from the world at least 15 years back.
 
“But it is causing paralytic polio, though rarely, to the children who are fed  oral doses.
 
“Almost all the vaccine derived polio cases in recent years in the world have been due to type 2 strain,” he said.
 
“So the trivalent OPV will be replaced by bivalent OPV only with type 1 and type 3 vaccine strains soon.
 
“But before making that switch globally it is advised to introduce at least one dose of the injectable form of polio vaccine into the routine system.

“This shot will give protection against the type-2 induced polio”, he said.
 
“At the same time this vaccine will help protect kids from the type 2 strain lingering in the environment before complete removal of oral vaccine,” the EPI assistant director said.
 
Global alliance for vaccine Gavi, UN agencies UNICEF and WHO, and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) that support Bangladesh for child vaccination have hailed the move in a joint statement.