PACE Logo

PACE - Pneumococcal Awareness
Council of Experts:

 

E-mail this page   Printable View

 

Pneumococcal Disease Facts
 

Pneumococcal Disease

  • Pneumococcal disease is a leading infectious killer of children and adults worldwide. Pneumococcal disease is a bacterial infection that causes pneumonia, meningitis, sepsis and other life-threatening ailments. Pneumococcal disease kills 1.6 million people - including more than 800,000 children under age five - every year. [i]
  • Pneumococcal disease is common. Pneumococcal disease is caused by a common bacterium, Streptococcus pneumoniae, also known as pneumococcus. There are more than 90 known pneumococcal serotypes, the ten most common of which account for approximately 62 percent of invasive disease worldwide. [ii]
  • Pneumococcal disease affects persons of all ages. Anyone can get pneumococcal disease, but some groups are at particularly high risk, including infants, the elderly, and adults and children with weakened or compromised immune systems, or chronic illnesses. [iii] , [iv]


Global Public Health Impact

  • Pneumococcal disease - including pneumonia - takes a devastating toll in developing countries. More than 150 million cases of pneumonia occur every year among children under five in developing countries, accounting for more than 95 per cent of all new cases worldwide. The most common causes of severe pneumonia in the developing world are Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus Influenzae type b. [v]
  • HIV infection significantly increases the risk of pneumococcal disease in children and adults. Children with HIV are up to 40 times more likely to get pneumococcal disease than HIV-negative children. [vi] , [vii]
  • Pneumonia kills more children than any other disease. Pneumonia causes nearly 1 in 5 deaths of children under five worldwide - more than 2 million children each year - and kills more children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. [viii]
  • Pneumococcal meningitis kills, and can cause lifelong disabilities for survivors. As many as one in four children in developing countries who contract and survive pneumococcal meningitis are left with serious disabilities, including cerebral palsy, epilepsy, brain damage, kidney disease, hearing loss, deafness, and limb amputation. [ix]


Pneumococcal Vaccines Save Lives

  • Pneumococcal disease is preventable. Safe and effective vaccines currently exist to prevent pneumococcal deaths in children and adults. In 2000, a new 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) became available and is currently in use in over 60 countries. Currently, 10- and 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine formulations are in advanced stages of development. These conjugate vaccines are expected to prevent 50-80% of all serious pneumococcal infections in children worldwide [x] and have the potential to make a major health impact especially in rural settings where access to treatment is limited.
  • Pneumococcal vaccines save lives. Since U.S. infants began receiving routine pneumococcal conjugate vaccination in 2000, the country has nearly eliminated childhood pneumococcal disease caused by vaccine serotypes. [xi] Estimates show that routine vaccination in developing countries could help save 5.4 million children's lives by 2030. [xii]
  • Pneumococcal bacteria are becoming resistant to some of the most commonly used antibiotics, making treatment more costly and less effective. Increasing rates of drug-resistant pneumococcal infections threaten the effectiveness of antibiotic treatment. [xiii] , [xiv] , [xv]
  • Vaccination of infants has public health benefits for adults. Vaccination of infants reduces the spread of pneumococcal bacteria so that adults have less contact with pneumococci and are thus indirectly protected from pneumococcal disease, a public health phenomenon known as herd immunity. [xvi]
  • Widespread immunization with the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine has been identified as a priority by the World Health Organization (WHO). In March 2007, the WHO issued a position paper stating that pneumococcal conjugate vaccine should be a priority for inclusion in national childhood immunization programs.[xvii]
  • Pneumococcal vaccines are a good investment. These new vaccines are likely to cost dollars per dose. Cost-effectiveness analyses indicate that pneumococcal vaccination in developing countries is cost-effective at a wide range of prices. [xviii]

 
 Please click here to download a PDF version of the Pneumococcal Disease Fact Sheet.

 

[i] World Health Organization. Pneumococcal vaccines. The Weekly Epidemiological Record 2003;14:110-19.

[ii] National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. Pneumococcal Disease Media Backgrounder (2006). [Online]. Available: http://www.nfid.org/pneumococcal/media_backgrounder.html

[iii] Cartwright K. Pneumococcal disease in western Europe: burden of disease, antibiotic resistance and management. European Journal of Pediatrics 2002;16(4):188-195.

[iv] National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, http://www.connectlive.com/events/infectiousdiseases/factspneu00.html

[v] UNICEF. Pneumonia: The Forgotten Killer of Children ( 2006). [Online]. Available: http://www.unicef.org/publications/index_35626.html

[vi] Mao C, Harper M, McIntosh K, et al. Invasive pneumococcal infections in human immunodeficiency virus-infected children. Journal of Infectious Diseases 1996;173:870-6.

[vii] Klugman KP, Madhi SA, Huebner RE, Kohberger R, Mbelle N, Pierce N, Vaccine Trialist Group. A trial of 9-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in children with and those without HIV infection. New England Journal of Medicine 2003;349:1341-8.

[viii] UNICEF. Pneumonia: The Forgotten Killer of Children ( 2006). [Online]. Available: http://www.unicef.org/publications/index_35626.html

[ix] Meningitis Trust, National Meningitis Association. Pneumococcal Meningitis: The Facts (2007). [Online]. Available:

http://www.meningitis-trust.org/disease_info/Pneumuococcal-Meningitis.pdf

[x] American Academy of Pediatrics. Therapy for children with invasive pneumococcal infections. Pediatrics 1997;99(2):289-99.

[xi] Anderson  BJ, Craig AS, Farley MM, Griffen MR, Hadler JL, Harrison LH, Lexau CA, Poehling KA, Reingold AL, Schaffner W, Talbot TR, Thomas AR, Whitney CG, Zell E. Invasive Pneumococcal Disease Among Infants Before and After Introduction of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine. The Journal of the American Medical Association 2006;295:1668-1674.

[xii] PneumoADIP. Vaccine Introduction (2007). [Online]. Available: http://www.preventpneumo.org/diseases_vaccines/vaccine_introduction/

[xiii] Baraff LJ, Lee SI, Schriger DL. Outcomes of bacterial meningitis in children: a metaanalysis. Pediatric Infectious Diseases Journal 1993;12:389-94.

[xiv] Klugman KP. Bacteriological evidence of antibiotic failure in pneumococcal lower respiratory infections. European Respiratory Journal Supplement 2002;36:3-8.

[xv] Dagan R. Clinical significance of resistant organisms in otitis media. Pediatric Infectious Diseases Journal 2000;19(4):378-82.

[xvi] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Direct and Indirect Effects of Routine Vaccination of Children with 7-Valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine on Incidence of Invasive Pneumococcal Disease - United States, 1998-2003. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2005;54(36)893-897.

[xvii] World Health Organization. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for childhood immunization.  The Weekly Epidemiological Record 2007;12:93-104.

[xviii] Sinha A, Levine O, Knoll MD, Muhib F, Lieu TA. Cost-effectiveness of pneumococcal conjugate vaccination in the prevention of child mortality: an international economic analysis. The Lancet 2007;369:389.