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http://adc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/archdischild;88/3/211

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Collections under which this article appears: Drugs: immunological products and vaccines Children

Archives of Disease in Childhood 2003;88:211-214
© 2003 BMJ Publishing Group & Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
 

Pneumococcal nasopharyngeal carriage in children following heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccination in infancy

R Lakshman¹, C Murdoch¹, G Race¹, R Burkinshaw¹, L Shaw¹ and A Finn²

¹ Sheffield Institute for Vaccine Studies, Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Sheffield S10 2TH, UK
² Institute of Child Health, University of Bristol, Bristol BS2 8AE, UK

Correspondence to:
Prof. A Finn, Institute of Child Health, Level 6, UBHT Education Centre, Upper Maudlin St, Bristol BS2 8AE, UK;
Adam.Finn@bristol.ac.uk

Aims: To ascertain whether the reduction in nasopharyngeal carriage of vaccine serotypes induced by pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PnCV) administered to infants persists beyond the age of 2 years.

Methods: Non-randomised, unblinded controlled study of 2–5 year old children who had received three doses of heptavalent PnCV (7VPnCV) in infancy and 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine at 13 months, and unimmunised controls. Nasopharyngeal swabs were taken in summer (150 vaccinated subjects, 126 controls) and winter (143 vaccinated subjects, 188 controls). The swabs were cultured and serotyped for Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Results: Carriage rates (vaccinated subjects: 24.7% and 43.4%; controls: 27.0% and 41.0%, in summer and winter respectively) and carriage of vaccine serotypes (subjects: 10.0% and 30.0%; controls: 13.5% and 31.5%, in summer and winter respectively) were similar in the two groups.

Conclusions: Effects of vaccination in infancy on rates of nasal carriage of pneumococcus and serotype replacement in children living in a largely unvaccinated population are no longer evident by 2–5 years of age.

Keywords: pneumococcal vaccine; nasopharyngeal carriage

Abbreviations: 7VPnCV, heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine; Hib, Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine; NP, nasopharyngeal; STGG, skimmed milk powder-tryptone-glycerol-glucose

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