Vaccination Can Cut Childhood Pneumonia
Vaccinating
children in developing countries against pneumonia can significantly increase
their chance of survival, a British study finds.
Felicity Cutts
of the Medical Research Council and the World Health Organization led a
team that tested vaccine combinations on infants in The Gambia. One group
was given a vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus and influenza, while
the other was given the same vaccination mixed with a vaccine against streptococcus
pneumoniae.
The study found
that children given the pneumonia vaccine were significantly less likely
to contract the disease. Hospitalizations were reduced by 15 percent, and
overall mortality was down 16 percent.
Pneumonia is
responsible for 19 percent of childhood deaths around the world. The streptococcus
bacterium also causes meningitis and other bloodstream infections and severe
middle-ear infections.
The study is
reported in the current issue of The Lancet, the leading British medical
journal.
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Copyright 2005 by United
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