PNEUMOCOCCAL SEROTYPES ASSOCIATED WITH ACUTE PNEUMONIA1

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Abstract
At least 26 different pneumococcal serotypes were associated with 123 cases of pneumonia over a two-year period among residents of the community served by the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, New York. Nine bacteremic cases were caused by eight different serotypes and 10 deaths were associated with nine different serotypes. All of the patients who died had serious underlying illness. In each of two winters eight specific serotypes accounted for 41% and 48% of all cases of pneumococcal pneumonia, but these same serotypes accounted for one-half of all isolations. These and other published data indicate that a large number of various serotypes can produce infection, bacteremia, and death among high risk patients and can circulate freely among persons of an open community. The opportunity to reduce the mortality from pneumococcal pneumonia by vaccination with specific polysaccharides would appear therefore to be limited.

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