Promising results for pneumococcal vaccine

By Helen Albert, Senior medwireNews Reporter

Research published in The Lancet shows that the PHiD-CV10 vaccine is highly effective at protecting children against invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD).

The researchers, led by Arto Palmu (National Institute for Health and Welfare, Tampere, Finland), hope that the new vaccine will help reduce the number of cases of IPD that are not covered by the current seven-valent pneumococcal vaccine (PCV7).

Overall, 47,369 children younger than 19 months were recruited to take part in the study between February 2009 and October 2010.

The children received either four (n=10,227) or three (n=9960) doses of PHiD-CV10 or four (n=4868) or three (n=5186) doses of hepatitis vaccine as a control.

The effectiveness of PHiD-CV10 was assessed against culture confirmed IPD due to any of the 10 serotypes in children who received at least one dose of PHiD-CV10 before the age of 7 months (n=30,528).

Over a mean follow-up period of 25 months, there were 13 cases of confirmed IPD - none in the PHiD-CV10 four-dose group, one in the PHiD-CV10 three-dose group, and 12 in the two control groups combined. From this, the team estimated that the PHiD-CV10 four-dose schedule was 100% effective and the PHiD-CV10 three-dose schedule 93% effective at protecting children against IPD.

In the "catch-up" cohort of children (who did not receive their first vaccination before 7 months of age) there were seven cases of IPD, but they were all in the control group.

In total, there were 18 serious, but nonfatal adverse events that were suspected to be vaccine-linked, nine of which were "possibly or definitely related to the study vaccine." These included febrile convulsions, allergic reactions, and Kawasaki disease.

"Vaccination with PCV7 has already shown a substantial effect on the burden of pneumococcal diseases on public health among the vaccine recipients in different countries," write the authors.

"The effectiveness of PHiD-CV10 against invasive pneumococcal disease shown in the current study confirms that at least a similar reduction in disease burden can be expected with this vaccine."

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