A vaccine against the pneumococcal bacteria, which causes meningitis and pneumonia in children, is being considered for inclusion in the list of free vaccines for children.

The three-dose vaccine, which comes with a price tag of around €50 per dose, protects against the bacteria that is a common cause of pneumonia, middle ear infections, meningitis and blood infections.

The advisory board on immunisation recently recommended that the vaccine should be made available for free on the national health service. A spokesman for the Health Parliamentary Secretariat said the government is now considering it.

But he said that although the evaluation process had started, the inclusion of the vaccine had to be seen within the context of recommendations for updating the national immunisation schedule. There were also priorities for the overall health sector to be considered within the realities of limited resources available.

The pneumococcal bacteria lives in people's throats and normally causes very little problems. But people with a weak immune system, including the young and the old, can face problems.

Mark Fletcher, a doctor with vaccine manufacturer Wyeth, told The Times the jab against pneumococcal infections was developed to prevent serious disease in children. Studies in the US showed that the rate of hospitalisation for childhood pneumonia had decreased by almost 40 per cent while the rates of outpatient visits for middle ear infections went down by almost 50 per cent after the vaccine started being used.

In 2007 the vaccine was recommended by the World Health Organisation and is now part of the national immunisation programme of 35 countries, including most of the EU, Dr Fletcher said.

The vaccine is already available in Malta and a mother who spoke to The Times said her general practitioner urged her to give it to her son.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.