(Health Korea News / Lee Chang-yong) In celebration of World Pneumonia Day, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Korea launched an in-house campaign called ‘Pneumococcal V (Vaccination)’ to reflect on the dangers of pneumonia disease and the importance of preventing pneumonia through vaccination. It was announced on the 7th that it had been carried out.
Every year, November 12th is ‘World Pneumonia Day’, established by The Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia to raise awareness and awareness of the risk of pneumonia and to promote pneumonia prevention and effective treatment. Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Korea sympathizes with this purpose and has been carrying out various activities such as distributing infographics and quiz events every year to raise awareness of the dangers of pneumonia and the rules for preventing pneumococcal disease.
In order to emphasize the importance of practicing vaccination to prevent pneumococcus in the ‘Pneumococcus, too, do V (Vaccination)’ campaign, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Korea targeted executives and employees and their parents on the risks of pneumonia and pneumococcal disease and through pneumococcal vaccination. We had a useful time looking at the benefits. The name of this campaign contains the ambiguous meaning of ‘V’, a check mark indicating completion of pneumococcal vaccination, and ‘V’ in the English word ‘Vaccination’, which means vaccination.
Pneumococcus, the main cause of pneumonia in children and adults in Korea, is also the main cause of not only pneumonia, but also bacteremia, meningitis, and otitis media. The case mortality rate of invasive pneumococcal disease increases from 20% in those aged 65 years or older to 40% in those aged 85 years or older. The biggest characteristic of pneumonia in the elderly is that the typical acute respiratory symptoms seen in younger pneumonia patients do not appear often. Symptoms of geriatric pneumonia usually have minimal typical respiratory symptoms such as expectoration, cough, high fever, chest pain, and difficulty breathing, so the time until diagnosis is prolonged, and this delay can be a factor in increasing pneumonia mortality in the elderly.
As of 2023, pneumonia was one of the top three causes of death in Korea following cancer and heart disease, and the leading cause of death from respiratory disease, and the death rate due to pneumonia increased from 43.3% in 2020 to 57.5% in 2023. In particular, over the past 10 years, the number of domestic patients who died of pneumonia increased approximately 2.7 times (172.1%) from 10,809 in 2013 to 29,422 in 2023. Vaccination is an effective public health intervention to prevent infectious diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent disease outbreaks through vaccination.
One of the main causative bacteria in bacterial pneumonia is pneumococcus, which is known to account for 27-69% depending on the report. In particular, pneumococci can cause not only pneumonia but also invasive diseases such as meningitis by infiltrating the blood or meninges, and in the case of meningitis, neurological sequelae may occur even if the patient survives.
Song Chan-woo, vice president of Pfizer Korea’s Primary Care Division, said, “Pneumococcal disease is not limited to a certain age group and can be dangerous to anyone, so vaccination is important for all age groups, including adults as well as infants. “Through this campaign, we are happy to inform employees and their families of the importance of vaccination as a small but big action for their health,” he said. “Pfizer Korea has been working to prevent pneumonia in Korea for over 20 years, starting with the domestic approval of PCV7 in 2003.” “We have made efforts, and we will continue to take the lead in improving domestic vaccination awareness so that we can protect the health of our entire family from pneumococcus.”
Meanwhile, on October 31, the 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine ‘Prevenar®20’ received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. This is a new pneumococcal vaccine introduced by Pfizer Korea about 14 years after ‘Prevenar®13’, which was approved in Korea in 2010. ‘Prevenar®20’ has 7 serotypes (serotypes 8, 10A, 11A, 12F, 15B, 22F, 33F) added to Prevenar®13, which was previously supplied by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Korea, and is a domestically approved protein conjugate vaccine. It has the widest serotype coverage.
Prevenar®13 is a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine that can be administered to infants and toddlers from 6 weeks of age to the elderly over 65 years of age. Prevenar®13 has a preventive effect against pneumonia and invasive diseases caused by pneumococci, and protects against 13 types (1, 3, 4, 5, 6A, 6B, 7F, 9V, 14, 18C, 19A, 19F, 23F) coverage. In addition, since its domestic launch in 2010, it has ranked first in sales in the domestic pneumococcal vaccine sector for 15 consecutive years (Korea IQVIA data. J7D, Domestic Pneumococcal Vaccine Quarterly Sales 2010-2024.2Q sales), leading the way to prevent pneumonia in Korea.
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