Impact of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines for children in high- and non–high-income countries

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The high level of effectiveness of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) was demonstrated initially in high-income countries (HICs). However, because the burden of pneumococcal diseases (PDs) is greater in non–high-income countries (NHICs) than HICs, the assessment of these vaccines in this latter setting is crucial.

Areas covered: PubMed was used to search for literature related to the effectiveness of PCVs. Several studies described the effectiveness of PCVs in NHICs, and we compare the impact of PCVs on the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and pneumonia in HICs and NHICs.

Expert commentary: Implementation of PCVs has been effective in both HICs and NHICs. The decline in overall incidence of PD is due to the disappearance of most vaccine serotypes, which is straightforward and comparable across the different settings. As expected, the decrease in overall incidence of PD was eroded in part by the increasing incidence of IPD due to non-vaccine serotypes. We need to continue a multi-faceted surveillance of IPD and carriage.

KEYWORDS:

• Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine
• children
• invasive pneumococcal disease
• pneumonia
• high-income countries
• low-income countries
• middle countries
• developed countries
• developing countries
• PCV impact

Declaration of interest

R Cohen has received grants for the ACTIV institution, speaker’s fees from Pfizer, GSK, Sanofi Pasteur MSD, Astra-Zeneca and consulting fees from Pfizer, GSK and Jansen. C Levy has received grants for the ACTIV institution, Pfizer, GSK, Sanofi Pasteur MSD, Astra-Zeneca and personal fees from Pfizer. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Contributor’s statement

R Cohen and C Levy designed the review. The search strategy was developed by M Chalumeau and JF Cohen. R Cohen and C Levy evaluated articles for inclusion, analyzed and interpreted the data. All authors reviewed and revised the manuscript, and approved the final manuscript submitted.

Additional information

Funding

This manuscript was not funded.