Streptococcus pneumoniae remains an important human pathogen. For more than 100 years, there have been vaccine efforts to prevent pneumococcal infection. The pneumococcal conjugate vaccines have significantly reduced invasive disease. However, these vaccines have changed pneumococcal ecology within the human nasopharynx. We suggest that elimination of the pneumococcus from the human nasopharynx...

A recently published paper that assessed the comparative cost-effectiveness of the 2 pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) in Malaysia and Hong Kong reported that the 13-valent PCV vaccine (PCV13) is a better choice compared to the 10-valent pneumococcal non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae protein D conjugate vaccine (PHiD-CV or PCV10) from both a payer and societal perspective as well as unde...

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a major cause of morbidity in children. This study estimated the proportion of children with pneumococcal CAP among children hospitalised with CAP in Belgium and describes the causative serotype distribution after implementation of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. Children 0-14 years hospitalised with X-ray-confirmed CAP were prospectively enrol...

In the Community of Madrid, the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) replaced the 7-valent (PCV7) in the fully government-funded Regional Immunization Program (RIP) in May, 2010, but was later excluded in May, 2012, and included again in January, 2015. These unique changes allowed us to assess the impact of the different pneumococcal vaccination policies on PCV13 uptake in infants a...

Several years after the seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) was introduced in Canada and elsewhere, routine infant vaccination has led to near eradication of invasive pneumococcal disease caused by vaccine serotype strains in both children and adults. There have also been significant declines in pneumococcal-related disease including lobar pneumonia and otitis media. These declin...

Title: Elucidating the impact of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine programme on pneumonia, sepsis and otitis media hospital admissions in England using a composite control Authors: Dominic Thorrington ([email protected]) Nick Andrews ([email protected]) Julia Stowe ([email protected]) Liz Miller ([email protected]) Albert Jan van Hoek ([email protected]) Ve...

Despite proven good efficacy of pneumococcal conjugated vaccine in preventing invasive pneumococcal disease, breakthrough infections remain a noticeable problem with significant morbidity and mortality, especially in selected high-risk groups. We present a 2-year-old girl with infantile spasm, who was treated with antiepileptic drugs and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). Vaccination with thre...

The recent discovery of a mobile genetic element encoding a pilus-like structure in Streptococcus pneumoniae and the demonstration of a role for the pilus in virulence in mice have led to the proposal of the use of the pilus as a candidate pneumococcal vaccine. We examined the frequency of occurrence of the pneumococcal pilus, as determined by the presence of the rrgC gene, and analyzed its ass...

1. Background information and objectives of the meeting 2. Recommendations for pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in the context of the WHO Biological Standardization Programme 3. The impact of the pneumococcal vaccines worldwide 4. Serological criteria for licensing pneumococcal vaccines 5. Outcomes of the studies conducted by the vaccine manufacturers: experience with