Whole communities in Africa could be protected from pneumococcus by immunising young children
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - 16:31
in Health & Medicine
A study led by the Medical Research Council in The Gambia in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and published in this week's PLoS Medicine shows for the first time in Africa, that vaccinating young children against the pneumococcus (a bacterium that can cause fatal infections) causes a herd effect in which the entire community is protected against this infection.