Health Care Utilization for Pneumonia in Young Children After Routine Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Use in the United States

Abstract

In children younger than 2 years, the age group targeted for vaccination, pneumonia-related health care utilization in a privately insured population declined substantially following PCV7 introduction. These results suggest that PCV7 may play an important role in reducing the burden of pneumonia, resulting in major savings in medical care cost.

Significant decline in pneumonia admission rate after the introduction of routine 2+1 dose schedule heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) in children under 5 years of age in Kielce, Poland

“…Our findings are similar to the results of Grijalva et al [11], Zhou et al [12], and Durando et al [14]. It can be that, in an open population, as in our study, the effect of a PCV7 immunization program is greater than that seen in clinical trials because herd immunity can have an important role in the reduction of disease in both vaccinated and N-number of living individuals; n-number of pneumonia cases Fig.…”

“…The post-marketing study by Grijalva et al [11] revealed a 39% decrease in the all-cause pneumonia admission rate among children up to 2 years of age and a 65% decrease in the rate of pneumonia defined as pneumococcal. Zhou et al [12], comparing similar periods for children under 2 years of age, showed a 52% reduction of hospitalization and a 41.1% reduction of outpatient visits due to all-cause pneumonia and 57.6 and 46.9% for pneumococcal pneumonia, respectively.…”

“…Randomized clinical trials showed that pneumococcal conjugate vaccines prevent pneumonia [9,12,13,18,19]. Efficacy estimates, however, varied according to the case definition of pneumonia.…”

Difference between Japanese Secondary and Tertiary Medical Facilities Regarding Changes in the Hospitalization of Children for Pneumonia after the Introduction of the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine

“…As in previous studies (4,8,10,11), in the present study, the number of patients hospitalized for pneumonia in the secondary medical facility declined after the beginning of official financial support of PCV vaccination. In particular, the number of patients with pneumonia other than confirmed viral or mycoplasmal pneumonia was markedly reduced.…”

Changes in Serotypes and Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae Strains in Cleveland: a Quarter Century of Experience

“…Another study showed that as of April 2002 through March 2003, no cases of invasive V-serotype disease were seen in children Ͻ1 year of age, compared to 16 to 34 cases per year in the years before vaccine introduction, and similar reductions were seen in children Ͻ5 years of age (3). In a study of hospitalizations and ambulatory visits of families of 40 large United States employers due to all-cause and pneumococcal pneumonia from 1997 through 2004, Zhou and coworkers found that hospitalizations and ambulatory visits due to all-cause and pneumococcal pneumonia among children younger than 2 years declined significantly, with decreases of 41.1% to 57.6% (45). Projecting these data to the United States population, the total estimated direct medical expenditures for all-cause pneumonia-related hospitalizations and ambulatory visits of young children were reduced 45.3% (from an annual average of $688.2 million in 1997 to 1999 to $376.7 million in 2004).…”