Studies show pneumococcal vaccines’ protection varies

Three new reports, including a population study in Africa and two meta-analyses, suggest that pneumococcal vaccines provide moderate protection against invasive pneumococcal pneumonia in children and adults but only limited protection against all-cause pneumonia. Gambian children benefited In the population study, reported in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, a large team of authors examined the effects of the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) in the tiny West African country of Gambia. The seven-valent vaccine (PCV7) was introduced there in August 2009, followed by PCV13 in May 2011. Most of the authors are with Gambia’s Medical Research Council. The investigators identified invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) cases in the Upper River Region from 2008 to 2014, and compared IPD incidence during a baseline period of May 12, 2008, to May 11, 2010, and a 2-year period (2013 and 2014) after the introduction of PCV13. They counted 320 IPD cases among 14,650 patients, of which 243 cases...