The pneumococcal vaccine, made by Pfizer, has resulted in dramatic drops in meningitis and pneumonia.
According to the World Health Organization estimates, nearly 1.6 million people die each year from pneumococcal infections.
The first graph looks at what happened to cases of invasive pneumococcal disease when the vaccine was introduced.
FORBES: A Vaccine Eliminated A Deadly Killer Of Infants. So Why Do Some People Fear It?
Chair of the National Flu and Pneumococcal Group, Dr Jim McMenamin, warned about the potential consequences of not getting the jab.
It uses a clever linking technology to hook together a diphtheria protein to sugars from the surface of seven pneumococcal strains.
The graphs below paint a clear picture of how the rise of 19A is overwhelmingly outweighed by the decrease in pneumococcal disease.
FORBES: A Vaccine Eliminated A Deadly Killer Of Infants. So Why Do Some People Fear It?
There, 83, 000 patients have been randomized to receive either Prevnar 13 or placebo to see if the vaccine prevents cases of pneumococcal disease.
Today such strains show up in the U.S., and current pneumococcal vaccines may not stop them, says Jacobs, now an infectious-disease specialist at Case Western Reserve University.
Prevnar is referred to as PCV7 (for pneumococcal conjugate vaccine 7).
FORBES: A Vaccine Eliminated A Deadly Killer Of Infants. So Why Do Some People Fear It?
But in 2000 Wyeth scored a huge hit with Prevnar, the first vaccine for infants against pneumococcal bacteria, a common cause of pneumonia and ear infections.
But that may not be the case with Prevnar 13, a new pneumococcal 13-valent conjugate vaccine for older people (ages 50 and up) to prevent pneumonia.
It is estimated that in the past two years, vaccines distributed in Africa and Asia have prevented more than 70% of serious pneumococcal infections among children.
In the US, where an individual pneumococcal vaccine is given to children during the first 18 months, there has been a two thirds fall in the disease.
Pneumococcal infections in young kids plunged 77% after Prevnar's debut.
It proved so effective, in fact, that fewer pneumococcal infections occur in people over 65 who have never gotten the vaccine, because the germs are no longer circulating.
FORBES: A Vaccine Eliminated A Deadly Killer Of Infants. So Why Do Some People Fear It?
The pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine is for everyone 65 and up.
Pneumococcal disease is a substantial cause of illness and death.
Some 50, 000 Americans die annually from pneumococcal disease.
There is promise there, particularly in the lung cancer drug crizotinib, which is being submitted to the Food and Drug Administration, and to Prevnar, the vaccine against pneumococcal disease, which is being tested in adults.
The donor commitments provide manufacturers with an incentive to build manufacturing capacity to produce the pneumococcal vaccine, which protects children against the leading cause of pneumonia, which in turn is the leading cause of death for children under age 5.
FORBES: GAVI Alliance CEO: Leadership Is About Vision and Responsibility, Not Power
In fact, one paper Mercola cites, which noted a 71% increase in the prevalence of 19A, also said there had been a dramatic 44% reduction in invasive pneumococcal disease, including pneumonia, meningitis, and bloodstream infections and that includes the increase in 19A. The new vaccine, Prevnar 13, introduced in 2010, protects against the deadly 19A strain, which now appears to be on the wane.
FORBES: A Vaccine Eliminated A Deadly Killer Of Infants. So Why Do Some People Fear It?
应用推荐