Public health experts urged the government to upgrade Bangladesh’s existing pneumonia vaccine to a ‘higher-valency’ version to ensure stronger protection for children against evolving pneumococcal infections, said a press release on Friday.
At a scientific discussion held at the ICDDR,B in Dhaka city on Thursday, specialists called for replacing the current PCV-10 vaccine with newer-generation formulations such as PCV-13, PCV-15, or PCV-20.
The event focused on enhancing vaccine-induced protection and addressing the growing challenge of ‘serotype replacement’, causing certain pneumococcal strains to decline after vaccination allowing others to emerge.
The call comes after findings from a surveillance study that revealed that most pneumococcal serotypes now circulating in Bangladesh are not well covered by PCV-10, which has been used in the country’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation since 2015.
The study was jointly conducted by the ICDDR,B and Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research with support from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Presenting the findings, Dr Md Zakiul Hassan, associate scientist at the ICDDR,B said that shifting to PCV-13, PCV-15, or PCV-20 could expand protection respectively to about 17 per cent, 19, and 52 per cent of currently circulating pneumococcal serotypes.
Experts explained that this shift in bacterial strains reflected a natural consequence of successful immunisation.
While PCV-10 has significantly reduced pneumonia-related deaths among children, new serotypes have since become more dominant, underscoring the need for an updated vaccine, according to their explanation.
Globally, 35 countries still use PCV-10, including Bangladesh, while 130 nations have adopted PCV-13, with 16 countries have rolled out PCV-15 and nine rolled out PCV-20.
Former EPI programme manager Tajul Islam A Bari noted that switching to PCV-13 could even be cost-saving, as it was slightly cheaper than PCV-10.
IEDCR director Dr Tahmina Shirin emphasised strengthening disease surveillance to guide timely vaccine updates.
Government representative Mohammad Shahariar Sajjad reaffirmed that Bangladesh currently planned to review and update its vaccine strategy in line with global best practices and emerging evidence.
World Health Organisation’s Dr Chiranjit Das added that several neighbouring countries had already upgraded to PCV-13.
The discussion, moderated by ICDDR,B senior scientist and NITAG chair Dr Firdausi Qadri, was attended, among others, by Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons president Professor Mohammod Shahidullah, ICDDR,B executive director Tahmeed Ahmed, and UNICEF senior immunisation consultant Dr Shamsuzzaman.
Experts agreed that adopting a higher-valency pneumococcal vaccine would be a crucial move to sustain progress in child health and maintain Bangladesh’s success in reducing pneumonia-related deaths.
