Several epidemiological studies have evidenced that children with underlying chronic conditions are at increased risk of pneumococcal infections with higher case-fatality rates than healthy subjects. Because pharyngeal pneumococcal carriage is a prerequisite for pneumococcal infection development, the high colonization rates found in these subjects is the most important reason for this phenomen...

The seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (7vPCV) includes serotype 6B. No invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) caused by this serotype has occurred in Indigenous people in north Queensland since 7vPCV was made freely available to Indigenous children in the latter part of 2001.3 Although 7vPCV does not include serotype 6A, the experience in the United States of America (USA) indicates that...

BACKGROUND Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) has been in routine use in the United States for 5 years. Prior U.S. cost-effectiveness analyses have not taken into account the effect of the vaccine on nonvaccinated persons. METHODS We revised a previously published model to simulate the effects of PCV on children vaccinated between 2000 and 2004, and to incorporate the effect of the vaccine ...

Madhi et al. write that the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) is an effective instrument for pneumonia prevention in children. This is not strictly true. WHO data suggest that there are 450 million cases of pneumonia each year and that it causes 3.9 million deaths. In the sub-Saharan region of Africa, 1 022 000 die and 702 000 die in south Asia. The pneumonia referred to is “clinical pneumon...

BACKGROUND Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) is now recommended for use in adults in the United States. Because vaccination of children with PCVs protects adults from the targeted serotypes, local variations in PCV uptake among children could influence disease patterns in adults. METHODS We obtained ZIP code-level data on invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) from an active population-based ...

Antibiotic resistant and invasive pneumococci may spread temporally and locally in day care centers (DCCs). We examined 267 children attending four DCCs located in the same city and 70 children staying at home in three seasons (autumn, winter, and spring) to determine prevalence, serotype distribution, antibiotic resistance patterns, and transmission of pneumococcal strains colonizing upper res...

This paper analyzes the most recent reports regarding the direct and indirect effects of the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) when administered to infants and young children. PCV13 extends the protective effects reported for the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7). A further reduction in the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease, community-acquired pneumonia, acu...

OBJECTIVE To describe and analyze the occurrence of hospitalizations for community-acquired pneumonia in children before and after the pneumococcal 10-valent conjugate vaccine implementation into the National Immunization Program. METHODS This is an ecological study that includes records of children younger than one year old, vaccinated and not vaccinated with the pneumococcal 10-valent conju...