Vaccine Health Impact

Routine pneumococcal immunization programs in North America and pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) efficacy studies in Africa demonstrate that multi-valent PCVs have the potential to save millions of children worldwide.

Routine pneumococcal immunization programs with the 7-valent PCV in North America have demonstrated a phenomenal health impact. Pneumococcal disease incidence was reduced both in the vaccinated children due to the direct effects of the vaccine and in unvaccinated children and adults due to herd immunity. Routine immunization was also shown to reduce health disparities by substantially improving child survival in certain vulnerable sub populations.

Two studies testing the efficacy of the 9-valent PCV in The Gambia and South Africa demonstrate that multi-valent PCVs are safe and effective even for HIV-positive children. Multi-valent pneumococcal vaccines have the potential to make a major health impact especially in rural settings where access to treatment is limited.

One vaccine efficacy study in The Philippines with the 11-valent PCV is complete and the results are expected soon. This is the only large-scale population-based study in Asia.

In order to assess and demonstrate the effectiveness of PCVs in Asia, PneumoADIP, WHO and other partners have identified seven countries as sites for potential large-scale vaccine evaluations.