Healthcare experts attend the scientific roundtable held by the Việt Nam Association of Preventive Medicine in HCM City on June 24 to share and update medical information on pneumococcal disease in children. — Photos Courtesy of the organisers

HCM CITY — With one in 11 children hospitalised with invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) failing to survive, a greater focus on early prevention is imperative to combat the growing public health threat posed by Streptococcus pneumoniae.

This was the urgent message experts delivered at a scientific roundtable held in HCM City on June 24 by the Việt Nam Association of Preventive Medicine (VAPM) with support from Pfizer Việt Nam.

The event comes as pneumococcal disease prevention has been integrated into the Ministry of Health’s 2026-28 expanded programme on immunisation plan.

Recent medical statistics reveal a stark reality.

Surveillance data from 2012 to 2021 at Children’s Hospitals 1 and 2 in HCM City identified pneumococcus as the causative agent in 86.1 per cent of bacterial meningitis cases among children under five in southern Việt Nam.

A retrospective study (2019-22) at the Việt Nam National Children's Hospital in Hà Nội recorded an 8.8 per cent case-fatality rate among hospitalised IPD pediatric patients.

Prof. Phan Trọng Lân, president of VAPM and director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE), said in the case of some diseases, if people wait until a child is hospitalised, it is often already too late or they have at least already paid a heavy price in worry, cost, and sometimes serious consequences for the child, and pneumococcus is one such.

“Today, under the impact of environmental pollution, urbanisation, and the unsupervised use of antibiotics, the epidemiological picture of pneumococcal disease is becoming more complex."

A third of all Vietnamese children are asymptomatic nasopharyngeal carriers of the bacteria, acting as major transmission reservoirs within families and communities.

Of particular concern is serotype 19F, which is carried by 17 per cent of asymptomatic children but linked to 25 per cent of confirmed IPD deaths at the National Children's Hospital.

Compounding the crisis is a sharp rise in antimicrobial resistance, which the Global Burden of Disease 2021 has flagged as a global emergency.

In Việt Nam, 75.3 per cent of pneumococcal strains causing IPD at the National Children's Hospital were found to be resistant to third-generation cephalosporins, and nearly 100 per cent were resistant to erythromycin and clindamycin.

Assoc. Prof. Phạm Quang Thái, deputy head of department of communicable disease control at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, speaks at the scientific roundtable held by the Việt Nam Association of Preventive Medicine in HCM City on June 24.

Assoc. Prof. Phạm Quang Thái, deputy head of the department of communicable disease control at NIHE, said the epidemiological picture of pneumococcus in Vietnamese children continues to change over time, with a diversity of circulating serotypes.

“Continuous epidemiological surveillance and updated scientific data form the basis for professional decisions in preventive medicine."

The event also shed light on vulnerable groups, particularly children aged two to 18 with chronic underlying conditions such as severe asthma, diabetes, or chronic kidney, liver, heart, and lung diseases.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cao Hữu Nghĩa, head of the department of biomedical sciences at the Pasteur Institute HCM City, said pneumococcal disease today is not only a threat to infants and children under five but can also cause severe illness and complications in some older children with high-risk underlying conditions.

“Correctly identifying the risk groups at each age therefore plays an important role, helping to guide appropriate prevention measures to reduce the disease burden for children."

Clinical realities dovetail with these warnings.

Dr. Nguyễn Minh Tiến, deputy director of the City Children's Hospital, said his facility treats numerous severe cases of pneumonia, recurrent otitis media, and meningitis, with some critical paediatric patients requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation life support.

Through the roundtable, healthcare experts urged parents to move away from antibiotic reliance and instead partner proactively with medical professionals to secure timely immunisation and preventive care for their children. — VNS