SINGAPORE – Singapore will be the first country in Asia to get Pfizer’s new pneumococcal vaccine, which has a broader range of protection and could replace the two that are now in use here. For seniors, the recommendation is to get the pneumococcal conjugate PCV13 vaccine first, followed by the pneumococcal polysaccharide PPSV23 vaccine a year later. The new vaccine, PCV20, covers seven more bacterial strains than the PCV13, also manufactured by Pfizer. He said that unlike polysaccharide vaccines, conjugate vaccines, aside from getting the body to produce antibodies that protect against infection, also prime T cells and memory B cells, which can mount a response against invasive bacteria even after the level of antibodies has waned. Professor Ooi Eng Eong, a microbiologist at the Duke-NUS Medical School, also said the immune responses from a conjugate vaccine “would theoretically be broader and more lasting than what is elicited by polysaccharides alone”.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer March 19, 2023 16:27 UTC