Public health care experts are calling for a review of the country’s 13 years old pneumonia vaccination strategy, saying the Philippines is among the top countries with the highest incidence of pneumonia.
The proponents, led by researches from the University of the Philippines College of Public Health (UP-CPH), also cited a UNICEF report saying at least one child in the country is afflicted with pneumonia every 39 seconds.
The experts said revisiting the immunization program would also ensure the children’s protection.
UP-CPH Dean and Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Tropical Medicine (SEAMEO TROPMED) Director Dr. Vicente Belizario said there was a need to revisit the national strategy for pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and update the national formulary.
“A strong immunization system is paramount for prevention. There’s always new evidence coming out and we need to keep our doors open as the latest one may be the key to update our healthcare policies,” Belizario said.
Dr. Lulu Bravo, Exec. Dir. of the Philippine Foundation for Vaccination emphasized the importance of immunization. “Prevention tops everything else. If you prevent disease, you will prevent our healthcare system from being overwhelmed.”
Dr. Rose Capeding, Pediatrician and Infectious Disease Specialist at the Asian Hospital said epidemiology was changing all the time.
The new UP-CPH study concluded that “a reassessment of PCV use in the country with the inclusion of all three pneumonia vaccine formulations may be warranted.
Research project leader and UP-CPH Dept. of Medical Microbiology Asst. Prof. and chair Dr. Maria Margarita Lota said “we now have PCV choices that will provide us greater access and protection for more Filipino children.”
Health experts from the DOH, the Philippine Foundation for Vaccination, and the Vaccine Solidarity Movement joined the recommendation of to include all three WHO formulations in the National Immunization Program (NIP).
The three WHO-approved vaccines—PCV13 and two kinds of PCV10: PHiD-CV and SIIL-PCV— differ in their direct protection to serotypes or variations of the bacteria.
PCV13, the NIP’s current vaccine, was recommended by the Formulary Executive Council in 2014 based on the locally relevant serotypes.
However, according to WHO, evidence suggests that there has been a substantial change in the epidemiology of pneumococcal disease.
This provides the basis for a review of the choice of vaccine with possible consideration of the ones that offer direct protection against the prevailing serotypes.
Ultimately, accessibility to all three WHO-approved PCVs in the country and the advantages they bring can elevate the healthcare system in the Philippines to be at par with other GAVI-vetted countries.
“Knowing all the evidence for the three PCVs, we can see that they are comparable. This means that we can now include these three choices so we can have greater access and availability for the NIP as well as for the private sector,” Lota said.
Earlier, Congress signed Resolution (HR) 2492 which called for an investigation of pneumonia vaccines in the country and the economic implications of using only one formulation, PCV13, when a less expensive option, PCV10, is also available.
The WHO had declared that both formulations are at parity and not inferior to each other. However, to date, only PCV13 has been made available in the Philippine market since 2014.