Vaccine cuts U.S. Child Pneumonia Rate by 39%

A study in the Lancet medical journal has reported that routinely vaccinating infants with the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) resulted in a 39 percent drop in the number of children hospitalized for pneumonia in the United States.

The study used the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, the largest inpatient database available in the United States to collect statistics on hospital admissions for pneumonia among children under 2 years of age. The researchers looked at hospital admissions for pneumonia between 1997 and 1999, and from 2001 to 2004.

The use of PCV7 vaccine has resulted in a dramatic decline in hospital admissions for pneumonia, especially for children younger than 2 years of age. The medicine which is sold as Prevnar by Wyeth creates a so-called herd immunity effect around the recipient.

Prevnar contains the cell membrane sugars of seven serotypes of Streptococcus pneumonia, conjugated with Diphtheria proteins. Prevnar does not contain living ingredients.

The vaccine was introduced in 2000, at a price point pegged at $59 (double the cost of many other vaccines; excluding physician fees) per injection (four per child starting at two months old). In its first year alone it recorded sales of $461 million against the projected sales of $300-$500 million.

Dr. Carlos Grijalva, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville said, "A large number of pneumonia can be prevented with this vaccine. It was believed that the primary focus of the vaccine was on diseases such as meningitis and bacteremia, but this vaccine also has the ability to protect against more common infections like pneumonia and otitis media."

The study exemplifies again that the vaccine is consistently meeting its expectations in terms of its health impacts.