Vaccine Reduces Rates of Pneumococcal Infection

A four-year study of a vaccine against seven types of pneumococcal disease has shown that it reduced the rate of pneumococcal infection by 52% in children aged five to 19 and also reduced penicillin-resistant pneumococcal infection.

The study data show that even unvaccinated adults and older children are experiencing lower rates of pneumococcal disease since the vaccine's introduction. The reduction was 46% in subjects 20-39 years of age, 23% in those 40-59, and 32% in subjects 60 and over. Since the introduction of the vaccine, called Prevnar, penicillin-resistant pneumococcal infection has dropped from a high of 13% of all cases to 5%.

The study involved more than 37,000 children, who were vaccinated at two, four, and six months of age, with a booster at 12-15 months. The results show reduction in invasive pneumococcal disease in around 150,000 vaccinated and unvaccinated children under five, as well as in a surrounding population of more than three million people.

"Truly, this is an effect we hadn't expected, that the vaccine would reduce the rate of disease even in people who hadn't gotten it,” said Dr. Henry Shinefield, a researcher at the not-for-profit healthcare company Kaiser Permanente (Oakland, CA, USA), who conducted the study along with Dr. Steve Black. They presented their findings at the conference of the Society for Pediatric Research in San Francisco (CA, USA) in May 2004.




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