Pakistan has become the 1st country in the world introducing typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) to fight against typhoid disease.
Officials said that this decision has been taken after the recent increase in typhoid cases in the country. The World Health Organization has approved this vaccine and used in a two-week immunization campaign in Sindh province where 10,000 typhoid cases have been reported since 2017.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Health Zafar Mirza said, “The government has planned a phased national introduction strategy with strong, coordinated support from global and local partners.”
He further said tha
t the Global Alliance for Vaccine Initiative (GAVI) will support in introducing vaccine. It will begin with a two-week vaccination campaign targeting one crore children in Sindh. It will be introduced nationally in 2021.
Health Minister of Sindh Province, Azra Pechhuho informed that Two weeks of the campaign started in Sindh. one crore children from 9 months to 15 years will be vaccinated during this campaign. Soon will starts this campaign in other cities in the next few months.
Liberia and Zimbabwe are also planning to introduce TCV next year with support from GAVI after Pakistan. Several other countries are considering using this vaccine as they review data on the incidence of typhoid in their countries.
Typhoid is caused by the salmonella typhi bacteria, and is spread through contaminated food and water. According to WHO, every year nearly 1.2 crore cases of typhoid are reported globally. Death from typhoid is put at more than 1.28 lakh globally each year. And this is mostly reported among children and young adults in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
A TCV offers a good solution to protect children from falling ill and from drug-resistant typhoid.