BULLETIN OF GAVI'S PNEUMOADIP AT JOHNS HOPKINS BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
PNEUMOADIP: PNEUMOCOCCAL VACCINES ACCELERATED DEVELOPMENT AND INTRODUCTION PLAN
January 26th, 2007
WHO experts report Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines are a priority for introduction in developing countries and their safety profile is reassuring |
January, 2007. The last two weeks have seen important recommendations and reviews from two major expert committees of the World Health Organization. First, the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) issued its recommendations to WHO on the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) in developing countries: “SAGE considers that including pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in national immunization programmes should be a priority.” The full statement is available from the Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER) publication dated January 12, 2007. Next, the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS), which reviewed 62 studies, issued a brief statement indicating that the “evidence on the safety of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and other pneumococcal conjugate vaccines is reassuring.” The full statement is available from the WER publication dated January 19, 2007. SAGE is the principal advisory group to the World Health Organization (WHO) for vaccines and immunization. It is charged with advising WHO on overall global policies and strategies. The GACVS, an expert clinical and advisory group, was established to provide independent, rigorous review of vaccine safety issues. SAGE considered disease burden and vaccine impact data from a number of diverse settings to develop its recommendations. These include an emphasis on vaccine introduction in the countries and populations who will most benefit from pneumococcal disease prevention. Specifically, SAGE highlights three groups of countries:
The SAGE recommendation highlights the fact that the currently available PCV7 is a safe and effective vaccine which will save lives and its use builds a base for wider use of extended protection vaccines later. The vaccine’s introduction is expected initially to be made in countries where health care systems allow careful monitoring of the rates of disease to evaluate the impact of introduction. The GACVS report provides important reassurance that independent review of the safety of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines has not yielded significant safety concerns. Notably, both SAGE and GACVS stress that for all new vaccine introductions, including pneumococcal conjugates, it is important to conduct surveillance to monitor for any possible rare or unexpected effects. GAVI’s PneumoADIP congratulates WHO, SAGE, and GACVS on their efforts to provide guidance to developing countries. Based on the recent decision by the GAVI Alliance Board to accept the pneumococcal vaccines investment case, and in anticipation of WHO pre-qualification by early 2008, GAVI’s PneumoADIP expects that pneumococcal vaccine introduction could begin as early as the first quarter of 2008 in two or more GAVI eligible countries. To read the SAGE recommendation, click here To read the safety recommendation, click here |