WHO: Lao PDR first S.E. Asian nation to introduce pneumococcal vaccine; launches demonstration project for HPV vaccine.
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) became the first South-East Asian nation to introduce pneumococcal vaccine and begin a demonstration project for Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, “simultaneously tackling two major killers of children and women respectively – pneumococcal disease and cervical cancer.” The Lao PDR government will begin vaccinations at a ceremony in Vientiane on Wednesday morning involving hundreds of infants and school girls. About 180,000 infants will receive pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and 13,000 girls will receive the HPV vaccine in the next year…

2 October 2013: http://www.who.int/immunization/newsroom/lao_introduction_pneumococcal_vaccine_and_cervical_cancer/en/index.html