Invasive pneumococcal disease is a relevant public health problem in Brazil, especially among children and the elderly. In July/2010 a 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine was introduced to the immunization schedule of Brazilian children under two years of age. Between July/2010 and December/2013 we conducted a case-series study on invasive pneumococcal disease in Salvador, Brazil to descri...

The Department of Health recommends pneumococcal vaccination opportunistically or when immunising against influenza. This was a study in one general practice to assess the feasibility of targeting patients for pneumococcal vaccination in primary care. We also examined the rate of uptake of pneumococcal vaccine in identified risk groups after one year of a pneumococcal vaccination programme. A s...

BACKGROUND Animal models and data from influenza pandemics suggest that influenza infection predisposes individuals to pneumococcal pneumonia. Influenza may contribute to high winter rates of pneumococcal pneumonia during non-pandemic periods, but the magnitude of this effect is unknown. With use of United States surveillance data during 1995-2006, we estimated the association between influenza...

BACKGROUND Pneumococcal pneumonia can be diagnosed by the detection of capsular antigen in sputum, serum, pleural fluid, or urine using countercurrent immunoelectrophoresis and latex agglutination. In addition, quantitative cultures of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid are also reliable for establishing the aetiology of pneumonia. This study investigated the value of rapid detection of pneumoc...

Pneumococcal disease can be divided into invasive disease, i.e. when bacteria are detected in normally sterile body fluids, and noninvasive disease. Pneumococcal disease occurs more frequently in younger children and older adults. It is estimated that, in 2050, 30.3% of the European population will be ≥65 yrs old, compared with 15.7% in 2000. Preventive medicine, including vaccination, is essen...

The density and duration of pneumococcal carriage are considered to affect the likelihood of transmission and invasive disease. Because of its importance in both spreading and causing disease, carriage has been suggested as an endpoint in future vaccine studies. Culture is the current gold standard for detection, but may not be sensitive enough to detect changes at low density. Healthy adult vo...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the impact of heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in invasive pneumococcal diseases in the United States, and to analyze the potential impact of this vaccine in Brazil. SOURCES OF DATA MEDLINE, LILACS, Cochrane Database Reviews, as well as the websites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Brazilian Ministry of Health and Centro de Vigilância E...

Epidemiologic studies of pneumococcal pneumonia, including vaccine efficacy trials, are hampered by a lack of sensitive and specific diagnostic tests. Pneumococcal surface adhesin A (PsaA) is a genetically conserved, surface-expressed protein common to all serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae and is highly immunogenic. Detection of anti-PsaA immunoglobulin G by recombinant PsaA enzyme-linked i...

Pneumococcal conjugated vaccines (PCVs) have shown protection against invasive pneumococcal disease by vaccine serotypes, but an increase in non-vaccine serotype disease has been observed. Type-specific effects on clinical manifestation need to be explored. Clinical data from 2096 adults and 192 children with invasive pneumococcal disease were correlated to pneumococcal molecular serotypes. Inv...

BACKGROUND Young children played a major role in pneumococcal nasopharyngeal carriage, acquisition, and transmission in the era before pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) use. Few studies document pneumococcal household dynamics in the routine-PCV7 era. METHODS We investigated age-specific acquisition, household introduction, carriage clearance, and intra-household transmission in a prospect...