November 08, 2022
Pharmac widens pneumococcal vaccine
Pharmac has decided all infants will receive access to the PCV13 pneumococcal vaccine Prevenar, instead of restricting it to high-risk individuals.
Chief medical officer David Hughes says the decision was made after a review of changes in pneumococcal disease, with an increasing number of cases among tamariki of variants not covered by the currently-funded PCV10 vaccine Synflorix.
There were 8 deaths in children under 5 in 2020-2021, 7 of which were Māori or Pacific peoples.
The decision includes infants who have not yet received all three scheduled pneumococcal vaccine doses.
Dr Hughes says Pharmac will get further advice on catch-up doses for older children and whether the high-risk programme should also include Māori and Pacific children.