Tweet
Vaccination to protect against pneumonia bug
SWINE FLU OUTBREAK
Ng Yuk-hang
Jul 31, 2009
Parents will be able to make appointments next week to have their children vaccinated against a bug that causes a range of serious diseases, including pneumonia.
The immunisations against Streptococcus pneumoniae, also known as pneumococcus, will begin in September under a new programme rolled out by the government yesterday.
As well as pneumonia, the bacterium causes meningitis, ear infections and a blood infection known as bacteremia.
All children under two are eligible for up to four doses of the vaccine at the Department of Health's 31 maternal and child health centres.
Children who already have an appointment for other vaccines between September and November will also receive the new jab on the scheduled date, but parents of other children will need to make a new appointment.
Centre for Health Protection controller Thomas Tsang Ho-fai said parents should register at one of the centres from Monday, taking with them the children's birth certificates and immunisation records.
About 350 trained members of the Auxiliary Medical Services would administer the shots, he said, adding that the vaccine was safe and only rarely caused side effects, such as slight fever or mild swelling around the injection area.
"The risk of not getting vaccinated would definitely be much greater than its potential side effects," Dr Tsang said. But he said vaccination should be delayed for children with a high fever or diarrhoea, and they should not be vaccinated if they were allergic to the vaccine.
Almost eight in every 100,000 children in Hong Kong suffered from pneumococcal illnesses and there had been deaths, Dr Tsang said. He hoped the vaccine could reduce the rate of infection by as much as 90 per cent.
More than 500,000 doses had been bought for use on about 200,000 children, at a cost of about HK$228 million. While infants born after July 1 this year can get all four jabs, older children will only get one to three jabs, depending on their age.
Meanwhile, 189 new swine flu cases were recorded yesterday, taking the total to 3,459, with 37 still in hospital - four in critical condition and one serious.
The new cases included nine public hospital employees, who were all stable and isolated at home.
University of Hong Kong microbiologist Ho Pak-leung said being infected by both the genetically changed H3N2 seasonal flu strain and swine flu could have severe results. "Most people are not immune to these two new viruses. The body might not be able to adapt," he said.
Dr Ho said scientists were closely watching to see whether the two viruses would combine and become even more virulent.
* Six medical students from Hong Kong caught swine flu during the Asian Medical Students Conference in Taipei, Shih Wen-yi, spokesman for Taiwan's Centres for Disease Control, said last night.
Comment