Healthy Skepticism Library item: 18056

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Tite L
Drug company pushes for all children under 2 to be vaccinated against pneumonia
BMJ 2003 Nov 29; 327:(7426):1249
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/327/7426/1249-a

Abstract:

The pharmaceutical company Wyeth has launched a campaign to persuade the UK government to extend the use of its children’s pneumococcal vaccine to all children under the age of 2. Currently, the Department of Health recommends it use only in children who are at risk because of chronic disease.

The move follows recent data published in the New England Journal of Medicine showing indications of an early success for the US paediatric pneumococcal immunisation programme (2003;348:1737-46). Figures compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, show a 69% reduction in pneumococcal disease in children aged under 2 since the universal use of the vaccine was introduced in 2000.

The vaccine contains seven serotypes of the pneumococcus bacterium and is otherwise known as a 7 valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. The vaccine currently given to adults at risk in the United Kingdom is a 23 valent . . .