Scientists continue searching to help millions of people, especially children, who suffer from otitis media or middle ear infection, which is the most frequent type of ear infections. In most of the developed countries, nearly 100% of all children at the age of five years are affected by middle ear infection, at least once. In the United States, about twenty five million patients are treated from otitis media per year, with an estimated cost of three billion dollars. This is a dilemma.
Usually, otitis media in children are treated with the antibiotics and the insertion of the ear tubes. The repeated large doses of antibiotics will eventually lead to the development of bacterial resistance, while ear tubes sometimes are not effective and are always carrying the risk of permanent eardrum perforation.
Vaccines are taken to enhance the body’s immunity system to attack and destroy certain types of bacteria and viruses. Mostly, vaccines are preparations of attenuated or dead microorganism; they will stimulate the body’s own defense mechanism to produce antibodies against specific type of pathogens, without causing actual illness.
The pneumococci are the bacteria responsible for causing ear infections, sinus infections, meningitis and pneumonia. Fortunately, a new vaccine is developed to combat this type of bacteria. The conjugate pneumococcal vaccine is the most recent vaccine taken to protect against 7 of the most common types of pneumococci. This vaccine is safe and possesses mild side effects, its effectiveness reaches up to ninety seven percent. Therefore, the American Academy for Pediatrics and the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention are recommending this vaccine to the children who are under the age of five years.
It is worth mentioning that about fifty to sixty percent of all cases of otitis media or middle ear infection are caused by a strain of bacteria known as streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria, and before the conjugate pneumococcal vaccine was developed, this type of bacteria caused nearly 5,000,000 ear infections and more than seven hundred infections with meningitis every year.
Furthermore, there is a vaccine for Haemophilus Influenzae (NTHi) and Moraxella Catarrhailis bacteria, these two types of bacteria most commonly cause sinus and ear infections. Nowadays, the National Institute of Health is funding a lot of clinical trials to produce a new vaccine against viral flu infections, which eventually cause different types of ear infection. Most types of vaccines are taken during the fall.
