Here’s a friendly heads up that the Pneumococcal 13 Vaccine is now available in China. Manufactured by Pfizer and produced in Ireland, the release was mentioned on Oasis International Hospital’s WeChat account last week; it is now on the market and ready to be administered to infants between the ages of six weeks to 15 months.
Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (also called PCV13) protects against 13 types of pneumococcal bacteria. Pneumococcal disease can be caused by bacteria that spreads from person to person through close contact and result in a range of nasty problems including ear infections or lead to more serious infections of the lungs (pneumonia), blood (bacteremia), and covering of the brain and spinal cord (meningitis).
According to statistics provided by Oasis, one in every three children with a lower respiratory tract infection will carry the pneumococcal bacteria. When your child’s immune system is low, Streptococcus pneumoniae – the most common cause of bacterial pneumonia in children, can strike causing non-invasive pneumococcal diseases such as Otitis media (middle ear infection), sinusitis and Non-bacteremic pneumonia. The WHO believes that pneumonia accounts for 16% of all deaths of children under the age of 5 years and that the Pneumococcal 13 vaccine can protect against most serotypes affecting children under the age of five with an 87.7% effectiveness.
The vaccination is usually injected at two, four, and six months, with a booster at 12-15 months. Please contact your physician to find out if your child is eligible and when the best time is to begin. While we are certain that the vaccine can be found at Oasis International Hospital, we have yet to check other international or local hospitals on their availability.
Wherever you stand on the contentious subject of vaccinations, we are not suggesting that this is a necessary undertaking for living a healthy life in China, but if vaccines are a part of your family’s healthcare routine, then this might be something you might want to consider. While there is no doubt that getting a vaccine in China can be a safe undertaking, make sure to inform yourself about the various scandals that have occurred in the past. You can find out more about one such occurrence here so that you can better enlighten yourself and be prepared to ask your doctor the right questions before beginning this treatment.
photo: cdnmed.eluniversal.com
