RIYADH, 2 December 2002 — The Ministry of Health is planning to introduce pneumococcal vaccination program for the control of respiratory diseases in the Kingdom.

This was disclosed to Arab News by Dr. Yagob Al-Mazrou, assistant deputy minister of health, who said the ministry was collecting national data to determine the local strains of these bacteria and identify the appropriate vaccination program. The availability of pneumococcal vaccines is expected to go a long way in checking respiratory diseases among children caused by the expanding green belt in the Kingdom, among other factors.

He said the Kingdomwide study is being jointly conducted by the Ministry of Health and various universities in collaboration with King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST). The survey, which is still in the initial stage, will involve researchers and other scientific personnel in identifying the scope and dimensions of the study.

Dr. Al-Mazrou, who is also a member of the editorial board of “The State of the World’s Vaccines and Immunization” report jointly produced by WHO, Unicef and the World Bank, was speaking to Arab News on the occasion of the release of the report. While highlighting the achievements in immunization during the last decade, it outlines the challenges ahead. It notes, in particular, that the vaccines, while playing a major role in the fight against infectious diseases, are not reaching the vulnerable sections of the population.

Speaking on the measures adopted by the Kingdom in the national campaign against infectious diseases, Dr. Al-Mazrou said that in 1983 an innovative immunization program was launched under which the issuance of birth certificate was linked to the completion of vaccination against six diseases. Since then, the vaccination coverage has been extended to 10 diseases.

He said the expanded program of immunization (EPI) during this period had helped a lot in achieving a vaccination coverage of 95-97 percent against the 10 diseases last year. This mandatory vaccination program extends to all infants before the completion of one year. As a result, the incidence of whooping cough has declined from 98 per 100,000 population to 0.1 percent in 2000. Similarly, the reported cases of measles went down from 460 per 100,000 to three per 100,000.

The assistant deputy minister said even the changes during the last four years were no less dramatic. The incidence of measles dropped from 21 per 100,000 to 0.7 percent , representing a decline of 96 percent over a four-year period. The reported cases of German measles also plummeted from 1.9 per 100,000 population to 0.10 during the period. Other infectious diseases like mumps were down by over 60 percent, whooping cough by 56 percent, while no case of diphtheria has been reported since 1998.

Dr. Al-Mazrou said one of the biggest achievements of the Kingdom has been the eradication of poliomyelitis, of which no case has been reported since 1995. Even the solitary case of polio treated in 1998 was an imported one involving an Afghan child. He pointed out that with the program for the eradication of measles, German measles and mumps in two stages?involving those in the 0-6 and 6-18 age groups these three diseases were brought substantially under control.