The Pakatan Harapan manifesto promised in page 32 “The Pakatan Harapan Government will also provide compulsory pneumococcal vaccination for all children under the age of 2 years, as is the practice in many other countries.”
At the 2020 budget tabled by Finance Minister last Friday, it was announced that pneumococcal vaccination will be included into the National Immunisation Programme (NIP) and RM60 million had been allocated to fulfil this promise.
Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria, also known as pneumococcus, can cause many types of serious illnesses besides pneumonia. Some of these illnesses can be life threatening. Pneumococcal bacteria can invade the bloodstream, causing bacteremia or septicaemia, and the tissues and fluids covering the brain and spinal cord, causing meningitis. When this happens, disease is usually very severe, requiring treatment in a hospital and even causing death in some cases. Pneumococcus is the most common cause of bloodstream infections, pneumonia, meningitis, and middle ear infections in young children.
Up until now, only the children of the parents who can afford the vaccination got them from private clinics and hospitals. Budget 2020 marked the end of the struggle for many years by the paediatricians, victims’ parents and activists to have this vaccine made universal to all children regardless of their financial backgrounds. Many have witnessed the horrible damage or death suffered by many once beautiful healthy children from the invisible bacteria.
The cost of the vaccination is RM300 per jab with full course requiring four jabs at 2, 4, 6 and 14 months after births. The total cost for this vaccination alone is RM1,200 per child. This is on top of other vaccinations that are not in the NIP like chickenpox and hepatitis A.
The number of live births in Malaysia was 508,685 in 2017. If every child was to have the full vaccination privately, it would have cost a whopping RM 610.4 million.
The repeated appeals for pneumococcal vaccination to be included in the NIP was rejected by the previous government as not cost effective. Even though a research study showed that the government will be compensated with net overall savings in direct and indirect medical costs amounting to RM 499million over 5 years. This only holds water if the cost remained at the astronomical RM 610.4million.
Credits and praises must be given to the Ministry of Health for successfully including pneumococcal vaccination in NIP at less than 10% of the cost. Finance Minister has also provided the allocation to make this a reality that no children should again suffer from serious pneumococcal infection of the lung, brain and blood unnecessarily because of lack of public funding. This is the best example how the government can achieve a lifesaving and life changing policy at less than 10% of the normal cost. This alone make the Budget 2020 one to remember and the best ever.