IVI launches cooperation with DPRK to introduce Hib and JE vaccines for children
Dr. John Clemens, IVI Director General, will visit Beijing, China and meet with officials from DPRK authorities in late August. The two sides will discuss details of their joint project, including the provision of vaccines and equipment and refurbishing of a diagnostic reference laboratory to assist with care of children with these diseases.
IVI, an international organization based in the Republic of Korea, will work with the DPRK to introduce vaccines against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), which causes bacterial meningitis, and JE on a pilot scale. This will involve a pilot Hib and JE vaccination campaign for 3,000 DPRK children, scheduled for early next year. The campaign will help DPRK public health authorities assess the feasibility of introducing these vaccines into their routine vaccination programs for children.
Over the past few years, the DPRK government has prioritized its national routine immunization program with support from the GAVI Alliance, the World Health Organization and UNICEF. However, it has not yet introduced vaccines against Hib and JE, major causes of deaths and disabilities in developing countries.
IVI has already begun joint efforts with the DRPK by sponsoring and organizing a study tour for DPRK vaccine professionals. The tour took six scientists from the Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS) to leading public health and vaccine institutions in China and Vietnam from May 13 to 25, and focused on the prevention and diagnosis of Hib and JE.
The participants visited the National Institute for Control of Drugs and Biological Products (NICDBP) in Beijing, as well as the Beijing and Lanzhou Institutes of Biological Products, both major vaccine manufacturers in China. They also visited the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) in Hanoi, gaining exposure to state of the art diagnostic techniques for these diseases and vaccine production facilities there.
The IVI-DPRK program involves a package of activities designed to strengthen laboratory diagnosis of Hib and JE in the DPRK, enhance the capabilities of health workers, and provide vaccines for a pilot vaccination campaign to speed up the introduction of Hib and JE vaccines to DPRK children.
“We are pleased to be able assist the DPRK in efforts to prevent central nervous system infections due to JE and Hib in children. These are devastating infections, with high mortality rates and high rates of permanent neurological disability among children who survive,” said Dr. Clemens. “Creation of a reference laboratory for diagnosis of Hib and JE should not only help improve clinical management of children with these infections, but should also assist DPRK health authorities to better estimate the burden of these diseases in the DPRK.”
The world’s only international organization devoted solely to new vaccines for developing countries, IVI has made far-reaching efforts to cooperate with the DPRK in improving the health of its children. “We hope this is the beginning of our expanding partnership with DPRK authorities in the coming years,” said Dr. Clemens.
About Hib and JE
Bacterial and viral infections due to Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) kill an estimated 400,000 children globally each year. At present, the diseases caused by these pathogens are preventable with existing vaccines that are in use across the world, including in several developing countries.
Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is the leading cause of bacterial meningitis among infants and children worldwide. Each year, an estimated 386,000 children die from Hib, because these children do not receive safe and effective vaccines that are widely used in developed countries. If identified early, Hib disease is treatable with antibiotics. However, in many developing countries, including the DPRK, these drugs may be expensive or not accessible to local practitioners due to limited supply or high costs. Since the introduction of Hib vaccines, the impact on Hib disease has been outstanding: several countries have now documented the near elimination of Hib disease among infants and children. These vaccines have become integrated into the routine national infant immunization schedules of more than 20 developing countries in both Africa and Asia.
JE primarily infects children in endemic areas across Asia, leaving approximately 60% of those who develop clinical illness either dead or neurologically disabled. Dramatic reduction in the burden of JE has been achieved where routine immunization with JE vaccines has been implemented in countries such as South Korea, China, Japan and Thailand. JE is known to be endemic in the DPRK.
About IVI:
The International Vaccine Institute (IVI), based in Seoul, Korea, is the world’s only international organization devoted exclusively to developing and introducing new and improved vaccines to protect the world’s poorest people, especially children in developing countries. Established as an initiative of the United Nations Development Program in 1997, the IVI operates under a treaty signed by 40 countries and the World Health Organization, and conducts research on vaccines against diarrheal infections, bacterial meningitis and pneumonia, as well as Japanese encephalitis and dengue fever in more than 20 countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
웹사이트: http://www.ivi.int
연락처
Tae Kyung Byun(Public Awareness / Advocacy Officer) 82-2-881-1159
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2008년 3월 21일 10:09