Effect of 10-Valent Pneumococcal Vaccine on Pneumonia among Children, Brazil

• Main Authors: Eliane Terezinha Afonso, Ruth Minamisava, Ana Luiza Bierrenbach, Juan Jose Cortez Escalante, Airlane Pereira Alencar, Carla Magda Domingues, Otaliba Libanio Morais-Neto, Cristiana Maria Toscano, Ana Lucia Andrade
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2013-04-01
• Series: Emerging Infectious Diseases
• Subjects: Pneumonia; pneumococcal vaccines; PCV10; time-series analysis; vaccination; hospitalization
• Online Access: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/19/4/12-1198_article

Pneumonia is most problematic for children in developing countries. In 2010, Brazil introduced a 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV10) to its National Immunization Program. To assess the vaccine’s effectiveness for preventing pneumonia, we analyzed rates of hospitalization among children 2–24 months of age who had pneumonia from all causes from January 2005 through August 2011. We used data from the National Hospitalization Information System to conduct an interrupted time-series analysis for 5 cities in Brazil that had good data quality and high PCV10 vaccination coverage. Of the 197,975 hospitalizations analyzed, 30% were for pneumonia. Significant declines in hospitalizations for pneumonia were noted in Belo Horizonte (28.7%), Curitiba (23.3%), and Recife (27.4%) but not in São Paulo and Porto Alegre. However, in the latter 2 cities, vaccination coverage was less than that in the former 3. Overall, 1 year after introduction of PCV10, hospitalizations of children for pneumonia were reduced.