Macau doctors want vaccines against "infant killer"

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Doctors in Macau are urging the government to introduce another vaccine to protect children against pneumococcal diseases, which kill more than a million children worldwide a year, mostly in poorer states.

Dubbed the "infant killer", pneumococcal diseases are caused by the common bacteria, Streptococcus pneumoniae.

They cause pneumonia if they attack the lungs, bacteremia if they invade the bloodstream and meningitis if they end up in the brain. They can also cause middle ear infection and sinusitis.

Lui Kin Man, president of the Macau Paediatric Society, said childhood vaccination against the bacteria was important in southern China because treatment was especially difficult.

"In our region, like Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, bacterial drug resistance is very high, and pneumococcal (bacteria) is resistant to drugs like penicillin and erythromycin," Lui said in a telephone interview.

The World Health Organization recommended in March that the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine be included in national childhood immunization programs, but it is out of reach for many in Asia at a cost of around $70 for each of the four doses.

Bacteria and viruses are hardy, crafty forms of life that mutate constantly to survive. Excessive and improper prescription of drugs will result in them becoming resistant, and victims would require ever stronger drugs.

The World Health Organization estimates that 49 children in Asia are killed by pneumococcal pneumonia every hour.

"Mortalities (caused by the pneumococcal bacteria) are higher in developing countries and mostly from pneumonia. Of all pneumonia deaths, 40 percent of them are caused by this bacteria," Lui said.

(Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn, editing by Rosalind Russell)