Can 13-Valent Vaccine Effectively Prevent Pneumonia in Older Adults?

A 13-valent polysaccharide conjugate vaccine (PCV13) effectively prevented several forms of pneumonia in older adults, according to a recent study.

In the past, pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccines have been shown to prevent pneumococcal illness in infants, but their effectiveness against pneumococcal, community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in adults 65 years or older remains unclear.
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In order to test the PCV13 vaccine’s efficacy in this older population, researchers randomized 84,496 adults, 65 years of age or older, to either vaccine or placebo. Cases of pneumonia mainly confirmed through the presence of serotype-specific urinary antigens.

After a 4-year follow-up, 49 cases of CAP had occurred in the vaccinated group, compared to 90 in the placebo group, for a 45.6% vaccine efficacy.

The investigators also observed a 45% efficacy in protection against nonbacteremic and noninvasive vaccine-type CAP and a 75% efficacy against invasive pneumococcal disease.

“Among older adults, PCV13 was effective in preventing vaccine-type pneumococcal, bacteremic, and nonbacteremic community-acquired pneumonia and vaccine-type invasive pneumococcal disease but not in preventing community-acquired pneumonia from any cause.”

The complete study is published in the March issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

-Michelle Canales Butcher

Reference:

Bonten MJM, Huijts SM, Bolkenbaas M, et al. Polysaccharide conjugate vaccine against pneumococcal pneumonia in adults. NJEM. 2015 March [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1408544.