Immunization against pneumococcal infection in Russia will be launched on November 29, although earlier representatives of the Ministry of Health had planned to begin vaccination only at the end of December.
Children living in the Moscow and Lipetsk regions will be the first to receive the pneumococcal vaccine. However, by the end of the year about 3 million doses of vaccines will already be delivered to the regions.
According to the Ministry of Health, more than 3,000 children each year suffer from pneumococcal bacteremia, about 39,000 children develop pneumococcal pneumonia, and more than 700,000 fall ill with pneumococcal otitis media. Pneumococcal meningitis is extremely dangerous, with a fatality rate in Russia of 20 to 40%, exceeding similar figures for meningitis of other etiologies.
At the beginning of 2014, vaccination against pneumococcal infection was included in the National Immunization Schedule. The budget allocates 4.08 billion rubles for the purchase of pneumococcal vaccine (in 2013, 6.17 billion rubles were allocated for the purchase of all vaccines included in the schedule).