Effect of pneumococcal conjugate vaccination on serotype-specific carriage and invasive disease in England: a cross-sectional study

Background: We investigated the effect of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) programme in England on serotype-specific carriage and invasive disease to help understand its role in serotype replacement and predict the impact of higher valency vaccines. Methodsand Findings: Nasopharyngeal swabs were taken from children Conclusion: Because the additional serotypes included in PCV10/13 have high CCRs but low carriage prevalence, vaccinating against them is likely to significantly reduce invasive disease with less risk of serotype replacement. However, a few serotypes with high CCRs could mitigate the benefits of higher valency vaccines. Assessment of the effect of PCV on carriage as well as invasive disease should be part of enhanced surveillance activities for PCVs. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary.
Introduction Streptococcus pneumoniae is a bacterium that frequently colonises the human nasopharynx. Apart from disease outcomes such as sinusitis, otitis media, and community-acquired pneumonia, which result from direct spread from [...]