Vaccine combats childhood pneumonia

Friday August 27th, 2010

The number of children contracting a dangerous form of pneumonia has slumped in after the introduction of a vaccine, British researchers report today.

The vaccine was introduced four years ago in Britain after an unexplained surge of pneumonia cases.

Within two years, the number of children under the age of 15 who succumbed to bacterial pneumonia fell by 19 per cent, according to researchers at Imperial College, London.

There was a similar decrease, of 22 per cent, in cases of empyema, a serious complication of pneumonia, the researchers report in the journal Thorax.

In the nine years before the vaccine, PCV7, was introduced cases of empyema in England had more than trebled and cases of pneumonia increased by 31 per cent.

This had meant nearly 14,000 children needing hospital admission for bacterial pneumonia in 2005.

Researcher Dr Sonia Saxena said: "It's a frightening experience for everyone involved when your child becomes unwell and very disruptive to families if they need to be admitted to hospital, so we're really pleased that the number of children becoming seriously unwell and needing admission to hospital with bacterial pneumonia and empyema has fallen since the vaccination programme was introduced.

"In addition, it's great that such a large proportion of parents chose to have their child vaccinated over the period we were studying."

She added: "Now that we have clear evidence about the benefits of the pneumonia vaccine, we hope more parents will be encouraged to have their children vaccinated in future."

E. Koshy et al. Impact of the seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccination (PCV7) programme on childhood hospital admissions for bacterial pneumonia and empyema in England: national time-trends study, 1997-2008. Thorax, September 2010.

Tags: Child Health | Respiratory | UK News

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