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Home › Articles › General Health › Beyond Pneumonia

Beyond Pneumonia

Benefits of the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine

By Teri Brown

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Other interesting side benefits to the vaccine include an increased resistance to ear infections. "Although early studies also showed that the vaccine could prevent ear infections, we didn't know how big an effect this vaccine would have," Dr. Grijalva says.

Ear infections are very common diseases in early childhood, and their economic impact is enormous, about $2 billion to $5 billion per year. Pneumococci are responsible for about 30 percent of ear infections in young children.

Dr. Grijalva was one of the researchers and authors of a new study, "National Impact of Universal Childhood Immunization With Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine on Outpatient Medical Care Visits in the United States." The study showed a significant drop in the number of ear infections in young children since the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine was released for use.

"Our study showed that after the vaccine was licensed for use, the national rates of health care visits for ear infections dropped about 20 percent in children less than age 2 years," Dr. Grijalva says. "The study suggests that the national benefits of the vaccination with pneumococcal conjugate vaccine extend beyond the prevention of the rare serious invasive diseases like meningitis and bloodstream infections. The vaccine already has had an enormous impact."

In addition to the financial savings from the decline in visits, Dr. Grijalva says this means fewer sick babies, less missed work by parents and lower antibiotic use.

Using Less Antibiotics Is a Good Thing
Much has been written about the consequences of over-using antibiotics. In short, bacteria have become more resistant to common antibiotics, making bacterial infections tougher to cure. One of the side benefits of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine is the lowered use of antibiotics.


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