PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haiti on Monday launched the introduction of another vaccine, this one to protect children against deadly pneumonia.
The Ministry of Public Health said it will introduce the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine(or PCV) into its national routine immunization program.
The vaccine is aimed at reaching as many as 270,000 Haitian children each year, who will now be eligible to receive the protection against pneumococcal disease, an infection that causes several serious illnesses including bacterial meningitis and pneumonia. Pneumonia is the leading disease killing children under age 5 worldwide.
In Haiti, 69 of every 1,000 children die from a variety of illnesses before their fifth birthday. Continue reading