BACKGROUND Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among adults 50 years of age and older in the United States. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines are efficacious against pneumococcal disease in children and may also offer advantages in adults. METHODS We performed a randomized, modified double-blind trial that compared a single dose of 13-valent pneumococcal conjuga...

Pneumococcal disease, caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae, is a major burden to global health. Although the World Health Organisation (WHO) strongly recommends the inclusion of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in national immunisation programmes (NIP's) worldwide, this has not occurred in many countries in the WHO South East Asia and Western Pacific regions - particularly longstandi...

Pneumococcal conjugate vaccination has proved highly effective in eliminating vaccine-type pneumococcal carriage and disease. However, the potential adverse effects of serotype replacement remain a major concern when implementing routine childhood pneumococcal conjugate vaccination programmes. Applying a concise predictive model, we present a ready-to-use quantitative tool to investigate the im...

The wide use of antimicrobial agents and 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) has led to major changes in the epidemiology of childhood pneumococcal diseases. In Korea, data on the population-based incidence of childhood invasive pneumococcal diseases (IPD) are not available; however, institution-based surveillance data suggest a substantial burden of childhood IPD. Following the intr...

The aging of the world population is expected to be accompanied by increased pneumococcal pneumonia in older adults. To address this, the Community-Acquired Pneumonia immunization Trial in Adults (CAPiTA), a large, randomized, placebo-controlled trial conducted to assess the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) in adults ≥ 65 years, found statistically significant vaccine efficacy f...

Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common cause of bacterial pneumonia worldwide and a leading cause of sepsis and meningitis. In the United States, an estimated 40,000 persons die each year from pneumococcal infections. Since 1983, 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines have been licensed in the United States and are 56%-57% effective in preventing invasive pneumococcal disease. Howe...

We assessed the impact of the heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) on the nasopharyngeal carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae in healthy children aged 2 to 24 months, four years after its implementation in New Caledonia. The data were compared with those obtained, before the introduction of the vaccine, in the same target population From February to October 2008, 592 children were ...

Introduction Pneumococcal disease is a major cause of mortality preventable by immunization, yet pneumococcal immunization is underutilized. Influenza and pneumococcal disease accounted for approximately 3400 deaths per year in the US senior population between 1990 and 1999. In such cases, death results from pneumonia, meningitis, and bacteremia but can be prevented with a safe vaccine. Nonethe...

Pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine induces an initial rise in ELISA antibody levels, which then decline over time and in older adults antibody levels measured 4 to 7 years post-vaccination tend to approximate pre-vaccination baseline levels (1-5). The clinical significance of this decline is not well defined, as immune correlates of protection for pneumococcal vaccine in adults have not been e...