PCV Nepal

Learn more by visiting PneumoNepal.org  today.

Challenge

Nepal, like much of Southeast Asia, bears a significant burden of childhood pneumonia, the leading cause of death in children under five years of age worldwide. In 2015, Nepal became one of the first countries in Southeast Asia to introduce pneumococcal conjugate vaccine nationwide, providing a 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV10) to infants as part of the routine infant immunization schedule. This vaccine is designed to protect against 10 of the most common serotypes of pneumococcal bacteria. The PneumoNepal study is evaluating the health, programmatic, and economic impact of the PCV10 program in Nepal.

Approach

Key partners of PneumoNepal include Patan Academy of Health Sciences (Nepal), the University of Oxford (UK), International Vaccine Access Center, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (USA), and the University of Otago (New Zealand). A portfolio of studies supported by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, are evaluating PCV impact on hospitalized pneumonia, pneumococcal carriage in inpatients and in the community, immunogenicity using a novel dosing schedule, and economic analyses to estimate the costs of pneumococcal disease and the potential for PCV to prevent these costs. Data from five hospitals and from urban and rural community settings are contributing to findings.

Results

The poorest households were most severely stressed when their children were hospitalized where nearly 4 out of 10 pneumonia cases resulted in catastrophic expenditures for their households. Invasive disease cases went from being primarily vaccine-type to no vaccine-type cases in fully vaccinated children after 4 years of PCV10 use. Also carriage of vaccine-type pneumococcus in the community declined across a wide age range.