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September 18, 2002

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Children in Playgroups 'At Risk From Deadly Bug'"

London Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk) (09/17/02); Marsh, Beezy

Children under five years of age who attend playgroups or day care may be unintentionally exposed to potentially fatal illnesses, according to child health specialists, who are urging the British government to initiate a special vaccination campaign for them against pneumococcal infections.  Every year in England, 50 children under the age of five die from complications of pneumococcal infections, including meningitis and blood poisoning [sepsis], and many of those who survive experience brain damage and deafness.  The number of children in day care has risen 300 percent over the past decade, the child health group Raising Awareness of Pediatric Pneumococcal Infection and Disease

(RAPPID) said this week, calling for a government vaccination policy to help protect the increasing number of children in day care from disease.  Currently, the Department of Health only suggest pneumococcal disease vaccination for children with severe heart, liver, lung, or kidney disorders; health officials in France and the United States routinely recommend the shot for the very young.

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