Pneumococcal Disease

Are You Protected?

There are an estimated 175,000 hospitalized cases of pneumococcal pneumonia, 34,500 cases of bacteremia and 2,200 cases of meningitis each year in the United States. The good news is that pneumococcal disease can be prevented through vaccination. In fact, more than half of pneumococcal cases and nearly all deaths occur in adults for whom vaccination is recommended.

Vaccination against pneumococcal disease is recommended for

• Persons 65 years of age and older.
• Everyone 2 years of age and older with chronic medical conditions such as diabetes; chronic lung (excluding asthma*), heart, kidney or liver disease, or alcoholism.
• Those whose immune systems have been weakened by such conditions as cancer or HIV infection.
• People without a functioning spleen and those with sickle cell disease.
• Residents of chronic-care or long-term care facilities.
• Children at 2, 4 and 6 months of age, followed by a booster dose at 12-15 months.
• Children aged 24-59 months who are at high risk for pneumococcal infection.

*While people with asthma can safely receive a pneumococcal vaccine, asthma alone is not a high-risk indication for pneumococcal vaccination.

There are two types of pneumococcal vaccine currently available

• A polysaccharide vaccine used in all adults 65 years and older and certain persons 2 to 64 years with underlying medical conditions.
• A conjugate vaccine used in children under 2 years of age.

A single dose of the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine protects against the 23 different types of Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria that are responsible for causing more than 90 percent of all pneumococcal disease cases.

Despite the fact that the polysaccharide vaccine has been available for more than 20 years in the United States, more than one-third of people 65 years of age and older reported that they have not received the pneumococcal vaccine. Only 56 percent of non-institutionalized adults 65 years of age or older and fewer than 20 percent of adults in other high-risk groups who should get the pneumococcal vaccine have received it.

A study published in the medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases found that hospital patients who received the pneumococcal vaccine were 40 to 70 percent less likely to die than unvaccinated patients. In the study, vaccinated patients had a lower risk of respiratory failure, kidney failure, heart attack and other complications. Vaccinated patients in the study also spent an average of two fewer days in the hospital.