Pneumococcal (pronounced as neu-mo-co-cal) disease kills more than one million children a year. This disease is caused by a bacteria known as streptococcus pneumoniae or pneumococcus. Children under the age of 5 are susceptible to this disease. Infants below the age of 24 months are at the highest risk of contracting this disease. It is easily passed on from one carrier to another as it is air-borne. Droplets of bodily fluids from a carrier can infect another within seconds.
This disease is not easily detectable as the symptoms might just be passed off as a common cold or cough. Only upon further examinations would a doctor be able to confirm the disease. The four common illnesses of a child infected with pneumococcal disease are meningitis, bacteraemia, pneumonia and otitis media.
Meningitis can cause permanent disabilities like paralysis, retardation and some functions of the sense since it is an infection of the lining of the brain or spinal cord. Worst case scenario, a patient can die from meningitis. Bacteraemia is a blood infection that can eventually cause meningitis. Pneumonia is the infection of the lungs and otitis media is an infection of the middle ear.
To prevent your child from this deadly disease, pneumococcal vaccination is available. Doctors normally recommend for a newborn to be vaccinated as early as possible. The number of doses of this jab differs, depending on the age of the baby when given the first shot. At the maximum, a newborn needs to take 4 doses of this jab. If you start your baby a little later (say 5 months onwards), you may be able to reduce the dose to just 3. Ultimately, the later the child is vaccinated, the less dosage is given. But bear in mind that the longer you prolong vaccinating your child, the higher the risk of him or her contracting the disease.
To find out more about this disease and the vaccination, I highly recommend you to attend an exhibition organised by Malaysian Paediatric Association that is currently on-going. I found this advertisement in the newspapers with details of the exhibitions. I hope you can see the details from this picture, otherwise just google it.
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Wow, thanks for the sharing. I didn’t know Pneumococcal has caused such severe problem to children.
My pleasure!
Health should be something every parent must be concerned about.