BY: CHEAH UI-HOON

LESS than 10 per cent of parents here understand the importance of vaccinating their children against pneumococcal disease, reckons one parent who lost his child to the disease.

Even though the vaccine was made available here in 2005, there's still very low awareness about it, says Heng Soo Yeow, 44, whose son died aged four in 1999. He hasn't met other parents who lost their children to the disease so far, but after a fledgling parents' support group had their first meeting last night, that could change. 'The main thing we want to do is to raise awareness about the importance of vaccination,' says Mr Heng.

Parent advocacy and support groups are key to raising awareness about pneumococcal disease and meningitis, which can kill or worse, mentally and physically scar a child for life, says Bruce Langoulant, founder and chairman of The Meningitis Centre in Perth, Australia. He is also president of the Confederation of Meningitis Organisations.

His daughter caught meningitis and meningococcal pneumonia when she was only six months old, and now she's a fully dependent 19-year-old, who's mentally impaired, deaf and with cerebral palsy and epilepsy. She is the reason why the financial adviser set up The Meningitis Centre in Perth in 1992. The centre informs on all three diseases that fall under the umbrella of meningitis - pneumococcal disease, meningitis, and Hib-meningitis.

Mr Langoulant: 'The disease can kill, or mentally and physically scar a child for life.'

'For those who want to find out more, they usually want to hear from a parent or someone who's had direct experience with the disease,' notes Mr Langoulant, who was invited to Singapore by Wyeth, which produces the vaccine for pneumococcal disease. PCV7 - the first and only vaccine that helps prevent invasive pneumococcal disease in children younger than two years old - was available in Singapore just three years ago.

Vaccination for children under five years old means that their risk of getting pneumococcal diseases is reduced to 20 per cent; and the risk of getting pneumonia is reduced to 50 per cent.

It's not a compulsory vaccination yet in Singapore, and it's only compulsory in 24 countries in the world, mainly in North America and Western Europe.

But as Mr Langoulant - who had successfully pushed for it to be included in Australia's national immunisation plan - points out that the health costs of bringing up a child with meningitis are tremendous. 'We estimate that it'll have cost us and the state some A$6-8 million (S$7.3-9.8 million) if Ashley lives up to 55 years old,' says the father of three.

At the parents' support group, Friends Against Pneumococcal Disease (FAPD), other parents who came last night included those whose children had contracted the disease but survived unscathed.

The annual incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease in children under two years old may be as high as 160 cases per 100,000 in developed countries. The risk is highest in infants from birth to 24 months. And then, since as many as 60 per cent of preschool children are carriers of pneumococcus, those who attend daycare are much more likely to become infected.

Pneumococcal disease is often under-diagnosed because it isn't as easy to distinguish from general pneumonia. Symptoms include coughing, rapid breathing and a high fever of 39 deg C and above.

The ideal time to vaccinate a child is when he or she is six weeks old onwards, but cost is a deterring factor, as infants need four jabs, and they cost over $100 for one dose.

For more information, please call 1800-882-3399.

This article was first published in The Business Times on August 16, 2008.