MANILA, Philippines - “If you lend me your ears, I’ll make sure to give you something worth hearing.”
These were the first lines of Dr. Gretchen Navarro-Locsin, Pediatric Otorhinolaryngologist vice chair, St. Luke’s Medical Center, Philippines as she spoke in the recently-concluded GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) regional launch of its new 10-valent next-generation pneumococcal non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae protein D conjugate vaccine (PHiD-CV).
Together with Dr. Lulu Bravo, executive director of the National Institutes of Health, and Sen. Loren Legarda, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health and Demographics, Dr. Navarro-Locsin discussed the health implications of pneumococcal diseases as well as their preventive options. Considered as the number one vaccine-preventable cause of death among young children, pneumococcal diseases or PDs include pneumonia, meningitis, sepsis, and acute otitis media (AOM), which is locally known as luga.
But as Dr. Navarro Locsin stressed, mortality is not the only burden associated with PDs. “For some children with otitis media, permanent hearing loss occurs, which can affect speech and language development and even school performance.”
Dr. Navarro Locsin adds further that parents should not feel complacent just because AOM can be treated with antibiotics. She notes that antibiotic resistance has become a major concern for physicians who have recommended the reduction of antibiotic use in children with AOM. Likewise, the bacteria’s resistance to antibiotics could result in treatment failure, longer hospitalization, and more expensive alternative therapy.
“A new vaccine to prevent AOM means that we can reduce the risk of early onset ear infections that often lead to recurrent disease. Recurrent disease is harder to treat and is associated with greater sequelae and or complications,” says Dr. Navarro-Locsin.
Alongside S. pneumoniae, non-typeable H. influenzae bacterium (NTHi) is a leading cause of bacterial otitis media as well as rare cases of invasive diseases such as meningitis and bacteraemia in premature babies and newborns.
And as a preventive option, GSK’s PHiD-CV vaccine protects children against S. pneumoniae, non-typeable H. influenzae bacterium (NTHi).
GSK’s next-generation pneumococcal vaccine provides broader protection to children against serious pneumococcal disease and AOM. It can help prevent more IPD by covering three additional pneumococcal strains, 1, 5, and 7F.18
“It’s good news that new options for pneumococcal disease prevention are now available,” says Dr. Navarro Locsin. “And the only thing that Filipino parents need to do is to realize the actual threat of luga or AOM and to actually go out and do something to prevent it.”