Bacterial meningitis is an infection of the meninges, the protective membrane that covers the spinal cord and brain. Children, elderly patients and immunocompromised patients are at a higher risk for the development of severe bacterial meningitis. Recently, researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia sought to identify new vaccine targets in Streptococcus pneumoniae, which is the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in the world.
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Anirban Chatterjee, chief of health and nutrition for UNICEF in Ghana, said the country "is doing a lot" to fight child mortality -- referring to a recently launched vaccination campaign and an initiative to educate mothers about nutrition -- but "I don't think it's enough" to reach the fourth U.N. Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two thirds by 2015, Inter Press Service reports.
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In this post in PSI's "Healthy Lives" blog, Deputy Editor Tom Murphy examines routine vaccination solutions in Nigeria, where "the Decade of Vaccines Economics projects 90 percent vaccine coverage against Hib, pneumococcal disease, rotavirus, measles and pertussis can save 600,000 lives and $17 billion in Nigeria over the next 10 years."
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The vaccine given to children to immunise against serious pneumococcal disease does not offer full protection, reveals research from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, finding that the number of cases diagnosed has tripled over the past 50 years.
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"Starting this week, Ghana will vaccinate the first babies in a new campaign against rotavirus -- a cause of severe diarrhea -- and pneumococcal disease, which causes pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis," Reuters reports.
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Ghana has become the first African country to introduce pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines at the same time, simultaneously tackling the leading causes of the world’s two biggest childhood killers – pneumonia and diarrhoea.
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The number of deaths from measles fell about 74 percent between 2000 and 2010, from slightly more than 535,000 in 2000 to an estimated 139,200 people worldwide in 2010, "missing an internationally agreed target for a 90 percent fall mainly because of low vaccine coverage in India and Africa where the virus kills tens of thousands a year," Reuters reports.
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A study released today by the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has identified the most feasible and impactful solutions for Nigeria's immunization program that could offer the best hope yet for scaling up vaccine access to the nation's most rural areas and taking aim at the country's precipitous number of child deaths.
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Pfizer Inc. announced today that data from a Phase 3 study of Prevnar 13 (Pneumococcal 13-valent Conjugate Vaccine [Diphtheria CRM197 Protein]) met all study endpoints, showing immunogenicity and establishing a safety profile in children and adolescents aged 5 through 17 years.
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Pfizer Inc. issued the following statement in response to today's discussion by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) regarding the use of Prevnar 13 (Pneumococcal 13-valent Conjugate Vaccine)in adults 50 years of age and older.
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Genetics has provided surprising insights into why vaccines used in both the UK and US to combat serious childhood infections can eventually fail. The study, published today in Nature Genetics, which investigates how bacteria change their disguise to evade the vaccines, has implications for how future vaccines can be made more effective.
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Health authorities of United States have approved the expansion of Pfizer Inc's Prevnar vaccine for use in adults 50 and older to fight pneumonia, meningitis and other diseases cause by pneumococcus bacteria. The vaccine, which had been approved for children in the United States, is already one of Pfizer's biggest brands and an expanded population of adults could generate more than $1.5 billion in annual sales.
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Prevnar 13, a pneumococcal 13-valent conjugate vaccine, was approved today by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for people ages 50 years and older to prevent pneumonia and invasive disease caused by the bacterium, Streptococcus pneumoniae.
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Pfizer Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted approval of the Company's pneumococcal conjugate vaccine Prevnar 13 (Pneumococcal 13-valent Conjugate Vaccine [Diphtheria CRM197 Protein]) as a single dose for use in adults.
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Pfizer Inc. today announced it has entered into a second supply agreement which will broaden and extend the duration of the Company's commitment to help protect millions of infants and young children in the developing world from pneumococcal disease - the leading cause of vaccine-preventable death in young children.
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Pneumococcal disease kills millions worldwide and the largest affected groups are children and the elderly. Federal health scientists now assure that the popular pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar is at least as effective as a rival vaccine at protecting adults from the sometimes-deadly infection.
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To mark World Pneumonia Day, a senior UK parliamentary delegation travelled to Dhaka this week to see firsthand the full impact of pneumonia on Bangladeshi children.
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The GAVI Alliance has "announced a major new initiative aimed at engaging private sector leaders: the GAVI Matching Fund," through which "the British Government's Department for International Development (DFID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will provide a 100 percent match of contributions to GAVI from corporations and foundations as well as their customers, members and employees," Bill Roedy, former CEO of MTV Networks and a GAVI Alliance envoy, writes in a post on the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog.
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In a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, healthcare providers are being urged to administer a supplemental dose of the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine to age-eligible patients as they come in for visits.
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Pfizer Inc. announced today that the European Commission has approved the Company's pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Prevenar 13 (pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine, for active immunization for the prevention of vaccine-type invasive disease caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae in adults aged 50 years and older.
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