Cuba starts today to apply its Quimio-Vio vaccine

As part of the efforts of the Cuban public health ministry (Minsap by its Spanish acronym) to tackle pneumococcal disease, the vaccination campaign with the Cuban immunogen Quimio-Vio begins today for two-year-old children, Francisco Duran Garcia, national director of hygiene and epidemiology, said at a press conference.

Until December 31, 2024, a single dose will be applied to infants born in 2022 in the 670 vaccination stations of the national territory, certified by the Minsap, he said.

The vaccine protects against meningitis, pneumonia and acute otitis media, produced by the pneumococcus bacteria, the doctor stressed.

Regarding the launching of the anti-pneumococcal vaccination campaign with Pneusomil-10 Valente, the specialist expressed that it is advancing to 93 % coverage, a process in which all live births are vaccinated between January 1 and June 30 of the current year, and live births in all provinces, which as of July reach 2 months of age (age established for the first dose in the vaccination schedule).

In her Facebook profile, Dagmar Garcia Rivera, deputy director of research and development of the Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV), explained that the Cuban vaccine Quimio-Vio protects against seven pneumococcal serotypes.

She emphasized that it is a very complex product, which when applied in the countries that have already used it, has led to a significant improvement in children's health indicators in terms of morbidity of respiratory diseases and infant mortality due to infections.

Quimi-Vio has been in clinical trials for more than 10 years, initiated in 2012, and as part of this long and deep research process, a study was carried out in Cienfuegos in 2023.

On that occasion, more than 90 % of children between one and five years of age were vaccinated, approximately 11,600 children, Garcia Rivera added.

The results of these studies showed that “one year after immunization, there was a 63% reduction in hospitalization rates due to respiratory diseases and a 73% reduction in invasive pneumococcal disease, due to the serotypes contained in the vaccine,” the researcher continued.

Cuban pneumococcal vaccine Quimi-Vio received in July 2024 the sanitary registration from the Center for the Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices (Cecmed), the country's regulatory entity, after a rigorous evaluation process.