The conjugate vaccine and invasive pneumococcal disease.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Whitney and colleagues (May 1 issue)1 observed, among adults, a decline in the rates of invasive pneumococcal disease caused by 7-valent conjugate serotypes but not by nonconjugate vaccine serotypes. They cautiously suggest that vaccination of children may be exerting a population effect. Adults in households with young children have high rates of nasopharyngeal carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae, 2 and Whitney et al. found a strong correlation between the magnitude of the decline in the incidence of disease among children less than 2 years of age and that among adults 20 to 39 years of age. However, adults 65 years of age or older have much lower carriage rates,2 and no such correlation was seen. In addition, no change in the incidence of disease was seen among persons infected with the human immunodeficiency virus.