Pneumonia vaccine reducing pediatric admissions

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-11/vumc-pvr110614.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 6-Nov-2014

Contact: Craig Boerner
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Pneumonia vaccine reducing pediatric admissions: Report

In Tennessee, the introduction in 2010 of a new pneumococcal vaccine for infants and young children coincides with a 27 percent decline in pneumonia hospital admissions across the state among children under age 2.

That's the lead finding of a report from investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), released Thursday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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Pneumococcus (streptococcus pneumoniae) is considered a leading cause of childhood pneumonia. The earlier vaccine (7-valent pneumococcal conjugated vaccine) provides protection against the seven most common strains of the bacterium, while the newer vaccine protects against 13.

"We had such a dramatic decline from the first vaccine that we really didn't know how much more effect you would get by adding six more serotypes to the vaccine. So it was very gratifying to see that there was another major drop in pneumonia hospitalizations -- a pretty dramatic additional decline," said the report's corresponding author, Marie Griffin, M.D., MPH, professor of Health Policy and Medicine at Vanderbilt.

Since introduction of the earlier vaccine, pneumonia admissions among Tennessee children younger than 2 are down 72 percent, to an annual rate in 2012 of 4.1 per 1,000 population under age 2. This is an all-time low rate for Tennessee and it implies a reduction of more than 1,300 pneumonia admissions per year in this age group since 2000.

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