New vaccine for breastfeeding babies

• To combat bacteria that cause illnesses such as meningitis and pneumonia • The first significant Cuban biotechnological product to originate from university laboratories

BY LILLIAM RIERA —Granma International staff writer—

FROM the age of two months, breastfed babies are to be immunized with a Cuban vaccine (Hib) to fight B-type Haemophilus influenza, the bacteria that causes a significant percentage of meningitis, pneumonia and otitis cases and is responsible for the deaths of half a million children a year worldwide.

Vincente Vérez Bencomo, a researcher at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Havana who developed the vaccine, told Granma International that “using the Hib vaccine as part of the National Immunization Program will reduce imports and save the country between two and three million dollars.”

He explained that the product will be administered to babies at two, four and six months after birth, with a booster dose at 18 months. The vaccine is currently in the final registration stage with the State Center for Medication Control (CECMED) after a total of six clinical trials.

He also stated that national demand for the vaccine will be met this year in terms of production and that “in 2004, we might begin to export the product.”

Other vaccines to combat B-type Haemophilus influenza and manufactured through the cultivation of this bacteria are sold throughout the world but Vérez Bencomo explained that this is the first of its kind to be produced synthetically in the laboratory.

He recalled that the team from the University of Havana has been working on the vaccine since 1989 and that this is the “first significant product to originate from university laboratories, highlighting that its “development is the fruit of joint work between the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center, the Finlay Institute and the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine, amongst other scientific bodies.”

Vérez Bencomo indicated that in conjunction with a Canadian university, the patented product has been launched in more than 30 countries including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, South Africa, Ukraine, Venezuela and the United States.