Pneumococcal vaccine developed by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India has been pre-qualified by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Pneumococcal Vaccine

• Pneumococcal vaccination is a method of preventing a specific type of lung infection (pneumonia) that is caused by the pneumococcus (Streptococcus pneumonia) bacterium.
• There are more than 80 different types of pneumococcus bacteria – 23 of them covered by the vaccine.
• The vaccine is injected into the body to stimulate the normal immune system to produce antibodies that are directed against pneumococcus bacteria.
• This method of stimulating the normal immune system to be directed against a specific microbe is called immunization.
• It does not protect against pneumonia caused by microbes other than pneumococcus bacteria, nor does it protect against pneumococcal bacterial strains not included in the vaccine.

About the Vaccine

• The pneumococcal vaccine PNEUMOSIL is a conjugate vaccine to help produce stronger immune response to a weak antigen.
• Serum Institute had optimized an efficient conjugate vaccine manufacturing processes for its meningitis A vaccine (MenAfriVac).
• It was used for manufacturing the pneumococcal vaccine. This helped the company reduce the manufacturing cost of pneumococcal vaccine.

Why?

• It pneumonia caused 1,27,000 deaths in India in 2018, the second highest number of child mortality under the age of five in the world.
• In India, pneumonia and diarrhoea cause the most deaths in children under five years.
• In 2017, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine was included in the under India’s Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP).
• It has been introduced in a phased manner starting with Himachal Pradesh, parts of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
• The efficacy of the Serum vaccine was tested against an already approved pneumococcal vaccine (Synflorix).

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