Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype distribution in children in the Russian Federation before the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines into the National Immunization Program

Abstract

WHO recommends the inclusion of PCVs in childhood vaccination programs world-wide. Many countries including the Russian Federation are currently planning the inclusion of PCVs in their National Immunization Programs and, therefore, data on the pneumococcal serotype distribution is important to estimate the potential disease impact. Here we review eight recent epidemiological studies on the pneumococcal serotype distribution from Russia. Across all studies, serotypes 6B, 14, 19F and 23F were the most prevalent. Interestingly, serotype 3 was relatively common. Serotype 19A was prevalent among AOM, CAP and nasopharyngeal isolates and among antibiotic resistant isolates in all age groups. The differences in serotype coverage between PCV10 and PCV13 were up to 26%. Based on the current data on serotype distribution, a wide use of PCVs in Russia may lead to a significant reduction of the pneumococcal disease burden.

Keywords::

• acute otitis media
• community-acquired pneumonia
• invasive pneumococcal diseases
• pneumococcal conjugate vaccine
• pneumococcal infection epidemiology
• Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support in conducting the studies (providing logistics, organizational and clinical assessment support, statistical data analysis, Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates collection, serotyping): LK Katosova, I Koltunov, K Konstantinov, P Prodeus, N Kondratenko, N Alabjeva, A Lazareva, A Ivanenko, M Bakradze, T Kazjukova, T Dudina, D Tulupov, E Tarasova, E Krivickaja, O Ponomarenko, A Darmanjan, T Polunina, L Gruzdeva, J Patrusheva, I Chashina, P Belavina, M Lazareva, M Petrovskaja, A Redina, A Platonov, S Belanov, V Gostev, A Ruleva, M Volkova, O Jozipovith, O Shupulina, I Zakroeva, E Malikov, L Solovjeva, A Zaplatnikov, E Frolova, W Amoss, R Wientzen.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This paper is summarizing in part studies that were held as Investigator Initiated Research (independent protocol development by the author, who is acting as the sponsor of the study totally responsible for running the study, safety reporting, ethical approval and management, publication preparation) financially granted by Pfizer H.C.P. Corporation. V Tatochenko is an employee of Scientific Center of Children Heath, Russian Academy of Medical Science, Moscow, Russia and received honoraria from GSK, MSD, Sanofi Aventis, Pfizer, Astellas, Novartis. S Sidorenko is an employee of the Research Institute of Children Infectious Diseases, Federal Medico-Biological Agency, St Petersburg, Russia and received honoraria from MSD, Pfizer, Astellas and AstraZeneca. N Mayanskiy is an employee of Scientific Center of Children Heath, Russian Academy of Medical Science, Moscow, Russia and has obtained grants and honoraria from GSK and Pfizer. T Kulichenko is an employee of Scientific Center of Children Heath, Russian Academy of Medical Science, Moscow, Russia and has obtained honoraria from Novartis and Pfizer. S Kharit is an employee of the Research Institute of Children Infectious Diseases, Federal Medico-Biological Agency, St Petersburg, Russia, expert board member of Pfizer, GSK, MSD and Sanofi Aventis and received honoraria from Pfizer, GSK, MSD, Sanofi Aventis and Novartis. R Kozlov is an employee of Institute of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (IAC), Smolensk State Medical Academy (SSMA) Smolensk, Russia, and received honoraria from GSK, Novartis and Pfizer. I Koroleva is an employee of Research Institute of Epidemiology, Rospotrebnadzor, Moscow, Russia and received honoraria from GSK, Novartis, Sanofi Aventis and Pfizer. RR Reinert is an employee of Pfizer, MDG/SA Vaccines. 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.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Key issues

• The current review paper brings together a Russian and international group of scientists with expertise in pneumococcal epidemiology, public health, infectious disease and vaccination and aims to develop a common view on the current epidemiology of pneumococcal disease in Russia.

• The pneumococcal disease burden in Russia was concluded to be largely underestimated but the recent data on the epidemiology of pneumococcal disease support the need for an introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) into the Russian National Immunization program.

• Further efforts should also focus on educating physicians throughout the country on the importance of pneumococcal disease, its diagnosis, improving pneumococcal surveillance in the region and the benefits of wide use of PCVs.

• The paper further supports the WHO position that planning for national use of pneumococcal vaccines should take into consideration the locally or regionally available estimates of disease burden, as well as the distribution of pneumococcal serotypes in different age groups and, lack of population-based surveillance should not be an impediment to PCV introduction.