BY SOLA OGUNDIPE
LONG before the 42nd Paediatric Association of nigeria Conference (PANCOF 20121) kicked off in Abuja, last week, it was clear. that Nigerian children desired  to have the Hib and pneumococcal vaccines.

It is no secret that  communicable diseases constitute major part of  disease burden in childhood, neither is it unknown that the majority of these diseases are vaccine preventable.

The conference with sub-theme “The Role of Immunisation in Reducing Communicable Disease Burden”  and 3rd sub-theme: “Partnerships in achieving Child-related MDGs”,  essentially focused on  strategies through which the nation could be  delisted from among countries perceived not to be working towards achieveing the MDGs.

At the end of the meeting, the unanimous verdict was that prevention and treatment of Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPDs) such as pneumonia, is critical to reducing child mortality, and also in attainment of MDG 4.

This recommendation is based on the verdict that safe and effective vaccines have proved to provide protection against both diseases. Also, while use of both  vaccines recently expanded to several developing and low-income countries, the  pneumococcal vaccine is not yet included in national immunisation programme in the Nigeria, where children bear one of the world’s highest risks for pneumonia attack.

Top paediatricians, pharmaceutical organisations, mothers, wives of armed forces personnel and market women among others, reached this verdict to underscore the urgent need for prevention of routine vaccination and improved treatment of VPDs.

From reasearch,  pneumococcal vaccine is particularly necessary to limit disease and save lives, hence implementing routine pneumococcal vaccination in Nigeria is critical if the nation is to achieve the UN goal for child mortality reduction.

Pneumonia, the world’s leading killer of children under age 5, is caused by  Streptococcus pneumoniae. Together with the Haemophilus influenzae type b [Hib], both infections take the lives of an estimated 200,000 children  below 5 years old in Nigeria  each year.

When the nation’s  Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) was  initiated 32 years ago in 1979, low national immunisation coverage was the primary problem.

Ever since, the drive has been to sustain and  re-vitalise the immunization system through strengthening of the health system  and routine immunisation services in particular to reduce disease burden from vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs).

Today, however, routine immunisation remains a major point of worry. Federal government, development partners and mothers in particular are far from happy because of the downward trend of the nation’s immunisation status.

The commitment to reverting the negative trend continues in anticipation that it will  significantly contribute towards achieving the goal of halving child mortality by 2015.