For a study, it was determined that Streptococcus pneumoniae was the most common cause of pneumonia in kids. However, the protection provided by pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) against pediatric pneumonia caused by vaccine-serotype pneumococci was uncertain due to diagnostic limitations. Between 2009 and 2018, the researchers analyzed data on vaccination and nasopharyngeal pneumococcal detection among children less than 5 years who had community-acquired alveolar pneumonia (CAAP; “cases”) and those who did not have respiratory symptoms (“controls”) who were enrolled in population-based prospective surveillance studies in southern Israel. The relative risk of identifying vaccine-serotype pneumococci among vaccinated versus unvaccinated controls was used to assess PCV-induced protection against carriage of vaccine-serotype pneumococci. The relative relationship of vaccine-serotype detection in the nasopharynx with CAAP case status among vaccinated and uninfected children was used to assess protection against vaccine serotype progression from carriage to CAAP. The researchers assessed PCV-mediated protection against CAAP caused by vaccine-serotype pneumococci by looking at the reduction in carriage and illness progression risks. There were 1,032 CAAP patients and 7,743 controls in the study. A PCV13 schedule containing two primary doses and one booster dose provided 87.2% (95% CI: 8.1–100.0%) protection against CAAP caused by PCV13-serotype pneumococci at ages 12–35 months, and 92.3% (–0.9%, 100.0%) protection against CAAP caused by PCV7-serotype pneumococci at ages 12–35 months. At 36–59 months, protection against PCV13-serotype CAAP was 67.0% (–424.3%, 100.0%) and 67.7% (–1962.9%, 100.0%), respectively. Two PCV13 doses gave 98.9% (–309.8%, 100.0%) and 91.4% (–191.4%, 100.0%) protection against PCV13-serotype and PCV7-serotype CAAP, respectively, at ages 4–11 months. PCV-mediated protection against CAAP caused by vaccine-targeted pneumococcal serotypes was similar to vaccine-serotype invasive pneumococcal illness in children.
Link:academic.oup.com/cid/article-abstract/73/7/e1423/6042567?redirectedFrom=fulltext
