May 4, 2004 (USA TODAY) -- A fairly new vaccine that prevents bacterial pneumonia, meningitis and serious blood infections is proving effective even in people who haven't been vaccinated, scientists reported Monday.
The pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar, manufactured by Wyeth, was licensed in 2000 and recommended for babies in four doses by age 15 months. Since then, says Henry Shinefield of the Kaiser Vaccine Study Center in Oakland, pneumococcal disease caused by the seven strains of bacteria included in the vaccine has dropped by nearly 99% among 150,000 children under age 5.
Surprisingly, he says, pneumococcal disease also declined dramatically among the 3 million unvaccinated older children and adults enrolled in Northern California Kaiser-Permanente, an HMO. In data presented Monday at a meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in San Francisco, Shinefield reported a decline in diseases caused by pneumococcal bacteria by:
- 52% in people ages 5 to 19.
- 46% in those 20 to 39.
- 23% in those 40 to 59.
- 32% in those 60 and older.
Preventing babies' infections reduced the amount of circulating bacteria that could infect unvaccinated adults, he says. "The parents and grandparents are the beneficiaries of having children immunized."
Broad use of the vaccine also appears to have reduced the prevalence of penicillin-resistant bacteria, Shinefield says. In 2003, 5% of pneumococcal bacteria were penicillin-resistant, vs. 15% in 2000.
These results occurred amid an ongoing shortage of vaccine because of production problems, Shinefield says. "We hope this (shortage) doesn't reverse what we're seeing," he says.
Copyright 2004 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
