Wyeth, a leading pharmaceutical company, recently held here a workshop on vaccination for pneumococcal disease. The workshop aims to spread awareness about pneumococcal diseases like meningitis (inflammation in the brain), bacteremia (infection of the blood) and pneumonia (infection of the lung) and their impact on the local community. The event also focuses on the role of vaccines and the benefits of prevention instead of cure. According to the World Health Organization, pneumococcal diseases are the number one cause of vaccine-preventable death in children under 5. Over 1 million children die every year of pneumococcal diseases across the world. Children under 2 years and elderly people over 65 years are at higher risk. Studies in Bahrain, UAE, Oman and the Kingdom have shown that invasive pneumococcal disease in children under 5 years ranges between 60 to 112 per 100,000. The workshop was also aimed at informing people that vaccination against invasive pneumococcal diseases is available in the Saudi market through the local doctors. Prevenar, the only marketed vaccine in the world for infants and toddlers against pneumococcal diseases, has reduced the rate of pneumococcal infection among children by 97 percent in clinical trials. __
