title: Global control of pneumococcal infections by pneumococcal vaccines.
abstract: Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major worldwide cause of morbidity and mortality. Pneumococcal carriage is considered to be an important source of horizontal spread of this pathogen within the community. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) is capable of inducing serotype-specific antibodies in sera of infants, and has been suggested to reduce nasopharyngeal carriage of vaccine-type pneumococci in children. PCV is generally immunogenic for pediatric patients with invasive pneumococcal disease, with an exception for the infecting serotypes. Based on evidences from the clinical trials of PCV, the health impact of childhood pneumococcal pneumonia appears to be high in developing countries where most of global childhood pneumonia deaths occur. PCV vaccination may prevent hundreds of deaths per 100,000 children vaccinated in developing countries, while PCV vaccination is expected to prevent less than 10 deaths per 100,000 children vaccinated in the developed countries. Therefore, the WHO has proposed a strategy to reduce the incidence of severe pneumonia by 75% in child less than 5 years of age compared to 2010 levels by 2025.
authors.affiliation: Infectious Disease Surveillance Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases , 1-23-1 Toyama, Shinjyuku, Tokyo162-8640, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazunori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Oishi
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Clinical Research on Infectious Disease, International Research Center for Infectious Diseases, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University , Osaka.
authors.forename: Kazuyo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Clinical Research on Infectious Disease, International Research Center for Infectious Diseases, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University , Osaka.
authors.forename: Yukihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Akeda
keywords: Bacterial colonization; Childhood pneumonia; Invasive pneumococcal disease; Opsonization index; Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine; Serotype-specific IgG; Streptococcus pneumoniae; WHO