Government set to introduce PCV, Rotavirus vaccine in May

By Simon Deng

The national ministry of health is set to introduce Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and Rotavirus vaccine on May 27, 2025 in public health facilities across the country.

George Legge, the Manager of Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) at the National Ministry of Health said the plan to introduce PCV and Rotavirus was conceived in 2021.

 The PVC and Rotavirus vaccine doses arrived in March 2025 with support from Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).

“The launching was supposed to be in April, but due to some challenges we pushed to May 27,” Legge said yesterday during the opening of the symposium organized by South Sudan Women in Medicine (SSWIM) on PCV and Rotavirus vaccine in Juba.

He revealed that the ministry of health has trained at least 5 of the EPI managers and the officers from the States, adding that what remains is the disbursement of the vaccines from national level to the States.

Douglas Mukwaya, the Cold Chain and Logistics Specialist for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said they are supporting the government on vaccine logistics management as well communication and the social behavior change.

“We received 2.7 million doses of PCV and 300,000 for Rotavirus, of course, more vaccines will be coming, but due to space adequacy at the national level we couldn’t receive all the vaccines at once,” Mukwaya said.

“One of the issues that has been rotating around all countries globally is the vaccine wastage. The PCV vaccines are packaged in the four-dose vial, meaning that one vial will have four doses, while for the Rotavirus vaccine is two doses,” he added.

Koiti Emmily, the co-founder and Executive Director for South Sudan Women in Medicine said the introduction of the PVC and Rotavirus vaccines will ease burden of pneumonia and diarrhea among children.   

“As health care professionals who stand at the frontline of care, trust and community action, we must rise together to champion vaccine access and ensure that there is no further delay in protecting  children from vaccine-preventable diseases,” Emmily said.

Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, is given to prevent infection caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria, while rotavirus vaccine is used to protect children against rotavirus infections, the leading cause of severe diarrhea among children.

 Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine is a pneumococcal vaccine made with the conjugate vaccine method and used to protect infants, young children, and adults against disease caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus).

It contains purified capsular polysaccharide of pneumococcal serotypes conjugated to a carrier protein to improve antibody response compared to the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the use of the conjugate vaccine in routine immunizations given to children.