Vaccinated infants well-protected against severe pneumococcal infection...( In 2006 a pneumococcal vaccine (Prev...),Health

In 2006, a pneumococcal vaccine (Prevenar) was introduced in the childhood vaccination programme in Norway. Two years later, the experiences have been published in the journal Vaccine. The results show a strong decline in serious pneumococcal infections among young children.

Pneumococcus is a bacterium that can cause serious illnesses in some young children, e.g. meningitis, blood poisoning and pneumonia. Most of those who become ill are previously healthy without any known predisposing factors. The bacterium is present in the nose of up to 80 - 90% of healthy young children.

A major reason for the introduction of the pneumococcal vaccine in the childhood vaccination programme was a steady increase in the number of cases of severe pneumococcal infection among young children in Norway. The vaccine protects against seven serotypes of pneumococcus which account for 70% of the serious cases of the disease.

"Having summed up the experience gained from the first two years after introducing the vaccine, the results confirm that it works as well as intended," says Marianne R. Bergsaker, senior medical officer at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and co-author of the article in Vaccine.

"Among all children under two years, in the first two years after the introduction of the vaccine there was a 70 % decline of serious pneumococcal infections caused by the targeted serotypes, compared with pre-introduction figures," she says.

Of the children who received at least two vaccine doses, none have had serious pneumococcal infections.

"We have so far failed to find an example of what is called vaccine failure for children who have received two or more vaccine doses," says Bergsaker.

In Norway, the vaccine is administered at 3, 5 and 12 months of age, i.e. a 3-dose programme.
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