Pressroom

Source: MedPage Today

By: Bankhead, Charles

08/30/2010

Use of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine may have reduced the incidence of pediatric bacterial pneumonia by about 20 percent in England within the first two years of the vaccine’s introduction, investigators say. The hospital admission rates for empyema also declined by 22 percent. In the two years before the vaccine was introduced, hospitalization for childhood bacterial pneumonia and empyema increased by 19 percent and 77 percent, respectively, according to an article published online in the journal Thorax. After the United States introduced a seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7), admission rates for pneumonia in children under two years decreased by almost 40 percent from 2000 to 2004. England introduced the PCV7 in 2006 in a childhood immunization program that called for immunization at months two, three, and 13 months, as well as boosters for children up to two years. Within one year, there was a marked decrease in the incidence of childhood invasive pneumococcal disease caused by the serotypes in the vaccine, the study authors write. By the end of 2009, however, the incidence of pneumonia caused by non-PCV7 strains rose to levels reported before the vaccine’s introduction. The British Department of Health switched from the PCV7 to a PCV13 vaccine before the impact of the former had been evaluated, but researchers conducted a national time-trends analysis to assess the impact of the PCV7 vaccine on admissions for childhood bacterial pneumonia and empyema. From 1997 to 2005, admission rates for childhood bacterial pneumonia increased by 31 percent, while admissions for empyema increased by 77 percent between 2004 and 2006, then declined by 22 percent from 2006 to 2008.