Pneumonia Vaccination Reduces Child Mortality

A four-year study involving more than 17,000 children in The Gambia shows that vaccinating infants against Streptococcus pneumoniae could greatly reduce death and serious illness among children in the developing world.

The study's purpose was to find out whether a vaccine shown to prevent pneumococcal disease in urban South Africa would also work in the challenging environment of rural Africa. The results revealed that the vaccine reduced childhood mortality by 16% in children. This is the first major randomized, controlled vaccine clinical trial in nearly 20 years to show a statistically significant reduction in overall child mortality.

Other findings of the trial were that the vaccine significantly reduced the need for hospitalization. The nine-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine was 77% effective in preventing pneumococcal infections caused by the vaccine serotypes. As a result, there were 37% fewer cases of pneumonia in the children who received the vaccine. The vaccine was provided by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (Collegeville, PA, USA).

Participants and sponsors of the trial include the British Medical Research Council and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (both in London, UK); the World Health Organization (WHO, Geneva, Switzerland); and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID, Washington, DC, USA).


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