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Background : This study aimed to summarise the evidence on the impact of routine administration of 10-valent and 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccines on pneumonia in children under five years of age in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: A systematic search of the literature was conducted including primary research reporting on the impact of 10- or 13-valent pneumococcal vaccines on childhood pneumonia in a sub-Saharan African country. Case-control, cohort, pre-post and time-series study designs were eligible for inclusion. Thematic narrative synthesis was carried out to summarise the findings. Results: Eight records were included in the final analysis, 6 records were pre-post or time-series studies, 1 was a case-control study and 1 report combined pre-post and case-control studies. Vaccine impact on clinical pneumonia measured as percentage reduction in risk (%RR) was mostly non-significant. The reduction in risk was more consistent in radiological and pneumococcal pneumonia. Conclusions: Evidence of the positive impact of routine infant pneumococcal vaccination on clinical pneumonia incidence in sub-Saharan Africa is inconclusive. Ongoing surveillance and further research is required to establish the long term trend in pneumonia epidemiology and aetiology after PCV introduction. PROSPERO registration : CRD42019142369 30/09/19., Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed., (Copyright: © 2020 Onwuchekwa C et al.)

Background : This study aimed to summarise the evidence on the impact of routine administration of 10-valent and 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccines on pneumonia in children under five years of age in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: A systematic search of the literature was conducted including primary research reporting on the impact of 10- or 13-valent pneumococcal vaccines on childhood pneumonia in a sub-Saharan African country. Case-control, cohort, pre-post and time-series study designs were eligible for inclusion. Thematic narrative synthesis was carried out to summarise the findings. Results: Eight records were included in the final analysis, 6 records were pre-post or time-series studies, 1 was a case-control study and 1 report combined pre-post and case-control studies. Vaccine impact on clinical pneumonia measured as percentage reduction in risk (%RR) was mostly non-significant. The reduction in risk was more consistent in radiological and pneumococcal pneumonia. Conclusions: Evidence of the positive impact of routine infant pneumococcal vaccination on clinical pneumonia incidence in sub-Saharan Africa is inconclusive. Ongoing surveillance and further research is required to establish the long term trend in pneumonia epidemiology and aetiology after PCV introduction. PROSPERO registration : CRD42019142369 30/09/19., Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed., (Copyright: © 2020 Onwuchekwa C et al.)

In the African meningitis belt (region from Senegal to Ethiopia), there are around 30,000 reported cases of meningococcal disease per year. The main aetiological agent is Neisseria meningitidis of serogroup A. Since 2010, vaccination efforts have increased and hundreds of millions of people have been vaccinated. There are indications that the epidemiology of meningococcal disease is changing. This is the protocol of a scoping review, the objective of which is to describe the extent and nature of the research evidence about the impact of vaccination on meningitis frequency. Primary studies and reviews are eligible for inclusion in the review if they assess the impact of interventions that include N. meningitidis vaccination in countries of the African meningitis belt, report meningitis frequencies, and include an element of comparison. The sources of records are electronic databases (MEDLINE, Cochrane register of clinical trials, African Index Medicus, and clinicaltrials.gov), surveillance reports at country level, online resources of large stakeholders involved in vaccination, reference lists of included records, and experts in the field. The search strategy is based on the combination of the condition of interest, the intervention, and the geographical region. The findings of this review will be presented using figures, tables, and thematic narrative synthesis. This review will not produce a pooled estimate of what the impact of vaccination is, but will give insight in how the authors of the included records assessed the impact., Competing Interests: Competing interests: Three members of the review team work for the Finlay institute in Cuba, a centre for vaccine research and production. The topic of the review was proposed by staff of the Finlay Institute. Sponsors and institutes played no other role in the development and content of the protocol or the decision to submit., (Copyright: © 2019 Molina N et al.)