All babies now get vital protection with new vaccine |02 November 2010

The first two infants – Ensiah Zialor and Indra Monthy – were vaccinated with the haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) vaccine at Victoria hospital on Friday to launch the Seychelles expanded immunisation programme (EPI).

Children will receive the vaccine at three months, four months and five months at their health centres, while vaccinations against polio, yellow fever, mumps, measles and rubella will remain unchanged.

Health Minister Dr Erna Athanasius and Dr Javier Rose were the paediatricians who vaccinated the two babies with the Hib vaccine.

It will protect a child against infections of the tissue covering the brain, lungs, throat, bones and joints, as well as infections spread through the bloodstream.

Also present at the ceremony were the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) liaison officer Dr Cornelia Atsyor and public health commissioner Dr Jude Gedeon.

The EPI programme manager Florida Bijoux and other staff from the ministry, as well as parents, were also there.
In her address, Dr Athanasius said infections caused by haemophilus influenzae type B bacteria can be deadly. They can cause meningitis, septicaemia and disease of the epiglottis, which are among the most serious infections known.

“It can also cause pneumonia, osteomyelitis, cellulitis, arthritis, conjunctivitis, respiratory infections and middle-ear infections,” she said.

She added that Hib bacteria are commonly found lining the surface of the nose and the back of the throat, making them easily transmittable. They can be spread among children in droplets of saliva when the one who is infected coughs or sneezes, when they share toys and other things they have put in their mouths.

Dr Athanasius said the introduction of this vaccine is an extremely important milestone in the annals of childcare in Seychelles.

“It reaffirms the commitment of the government to reduce child mortality even further, to achieve the millennium development targets and take every step necessary to provide maximum protection to our children,” she said.

The WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation all recommend the Hib vaccine as part of routine immunisation, unless a child has a good medical reason not to have it.

Dr Athanasius said the new vaccine will be given as part of one single pentavalent injection, meaning children will be protected from five diseases – diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis B viral infections and haemophilus influenzae type B infections.

She said one dose costs around US $30, and it will cost Seychelles more than R2.5 million to introduce the vaccine into our immunisation schedule.

Dr Athanasius said the Hib vaccine was invented in the early 1980s and approved for young children in the early 1990s.

“Many countries on the African continent introduced it in their immunisation schedules before us, and we started to consider this vaccine in 2008,” she said.

She also thanked the WHO for supporting the ministry with training and for producing the health promotion material for the vaccine.

Mrs Bijoux said babies who were born before August 1 will carry on with the immunisation schedule they have started.

It has been shown that the new vaccine has no serious side-effects except that redness, swelling and some mild pain may occur where the injection is given.