Protecting asplenic individuals from fulminant pneumococcal disease.

In this issue of Eurosurveillance, Chironna et al. report on an unfortunate death of an asplenic individual with fulminant pneumococcal sepsis [1]. Whether or not the death of this particular individual could have been avoided with active preventive interventions remains unanswered. It does, however, raise the alert to revisit the preventive guidelines of asplenic patients in general, and need for reminders both among practicing clinicians as well as asplenic patients.