Cyprus and Ireland add Prevenar to vaccination schedules

Cyprus and Ireland have added Prevenar, Wyeth's pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, to their national immunisation schedules. 26 countries now include the vaccine in their national immunisation programmes. The WHOrecommends that governments prioritise the inclusion of the pentavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in their immunisation programmes. Pneumococcal disease results in 1.6 million deaths each year, one million of which are child deaths. Prevenar is the only licensed pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and is now available in 88 countries; more than 180 million doses have been distributed, Wyeth says.