Paediatricians are urging the government to include the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in the national immunisation programme.
THE pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) was first made available in our country in 2005. Within a few years, healthcare professionals in Malaysia had begun calling for the inclusion of PCV into our national immunisation programme (NIP) following the growing practice in other countries.
This move reflected widespread recognition of the vaccine’s importance in preventing some of the most devastating diseases caused by the Streptococcus pneumoniae bacterium. Based on Malaysian studies, its impact is profound, as shown below:
