New vaccine needed for serious childhood pneumonia

A UNSW Sydney-led medical research team has called for a new vaccine, improved strategies and enhanced monitoring to combat serious complications from childhood pneumonia. The researchers examined the impact of the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (13vPCV) on childhood pneumonia and empyema – complicated pneumonia – after its introduction to the Australian National Immunisation Program about a decade ago. The new study, published in Thorax recently, found that while 13vPCV resulted in a 21 per cent decrease in childhood pneumonia hospitalisations, there was a contemporaneous 25 per cent increase in admissions for empyema. This incidence data for childhood empyema hospitalisations is similar to that reported in other countries. Approximately 7000 Australians under the age of 18 are hospitalised with pneumonia each year. Senior author Professor Adam Jaffe, Head of the School of Women’s and Children’s Health at UNSW Medicine & Health, said the researchers’ findings suggested an emergence of non-vaccine serotypes – those which...