World Society for Infectious Diseases (WSPID) is now working to expand the immunization coverage in the developing countries. The paediatric population in Africa, India, Brazil and South East Asia are at a risk to contract infectious diseases despite extensive immunization coverage.

The key reason is that there is a segment of child population for  whom vaccine coverage is lowest and these children need to be targeted to achieve the much-needed  improved vaccine coverage, said Dr Shabir Madhi, president, World Society for Infectious Diseases (WSPID).

The WHO estimates 82 per cent paediatrics receive the first three doses of childhood vaccine. However, the challenge remains that with such high level of coverage, the poorest quintiles of the population, are those who are not immunized as yet. This is where WSPID is working to  improve the  vaccine coverage, including making it possible to introduce new childhood vaccines, Dr Madhi, told Pharmabiz in an email interaction.

“A further challenge is that the number of vaccines being used in developed countries have increased exponentially, but  has not materialized for the majority of children. The vaccines under the   immunization programs are around 20 years old.  Newer, potentially life-saving vaccines which target rotavirus and pneumococcus have only been implemented in a smattering of developing countries,” he added.

Dr Madhi, was here in India recently to discuss with the Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) members on the country’s  National Immunization Programme (NIP) and its contribution to  pneumococcus, the leading cause of death from any single pathogen in children under-5, to overall and local childhood morbidity and mortality. He also provided an update on the potential of reducing this burden with the use of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines.

Immunization implementation in developing countries will only materialize when there is  political commitment of governments. The key challenge is to ensure that new life-saving vaccines are introduced in countries with the highest morbidity and mortality. “These vaccines are expensive than those which governments in developing countries are paying for. This has created the need to look at other mechanisms through which access to these vaccines can be funded for children in developing countries,” said Dr Madhi.

WSPID focuses on two leading causes of under-5 death, outside of the neonatal period. The first is caused by pneumonia from pneumococcus and haemophilus influenzae Type b. The second is diarrhoea due to rotavirus. This is where life-saving vaccines such as Hib, Pnc and rotavirus need to be included into the public -funded immunization programme . Even for India to achieve total immunization, there is need to expand the service with realistic targets of 90 per cent coverage with DTP3 and measles. India’s  role to achieve the Millennium Development Goals should be to ensure  avoiding vaccine-preventable diseases contributing to under-65 childhood mortality.

 Further, in order to reduce the  trauma for children during vaccination, pharma majors efforts to develop a single shot in immunization has posed difficulties as it  deals with targeting  multiple pathogens, stated Dr Madhi adding that  newer technologies are being evaluated, to provide  vaccines intra-dermally rather than intra-muscularly, or using  skin-patches.