Vaccine for (some) ear infections developed
Researchers in the Czech republic have developed a vaccine that reduces the incidence of ear infections in children. Better known to medical professionals as otitis media, ear infections afflict almost every kid at some point in time. Personally, I had chronic ear infections as a child, and I had to have tubes placed in my ears six times as a result.
This new vaccine is effective against two of the more common bacterial causes of otitis media: Strep. pneumonia and H. influenza. Of 5,000 infants in the test, 333 given the vaccine got middle ear infections compared to 499 in the control group.
These results may not seem especially good, but they aren't bad either: there are many causes of ear infections, and the infants weren't sorted into those that had Strep. pneumonia- or H. influenza-mediated otitis media and those who did not. The important finding from this study is that overall incidence was decreased by one-third.
This vaccine is a first for another reason: traditionally vaccines are formulated against lethal or otherwise potentially-devastating diseases: smallpox, polio, MMR, etc. This marks the first time that a vaccine has been developed for what is essentially a relatively trivial medical condition. There are concerns over the cost of developing the vaccine, and whether it will be a big hit, but given the amount of aggravation that many parents go through with their children's chronic ear infections, I see no reason to worry over the financials of the drug company who makes this and continues its development.
[tags]otitis media, vaccination, ear infections[/tags]
1 Comment »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
| TrackBack URI
You can also bookmark
this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos
[...] Vaccines are becoming the new medical hotness. Cervical cancer, otitis media, shingles, and now a second Alzheimer's effort. (I covered the first one here.) [...]
Pingback by Transdermal Alzheimer’s vaccine in the works :: OnThePharm — January 23, 2007 @ 2:48 pm