ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT Bacterial vaccines for prevention of upper respiratory tract infections have gained high priority in view of antibiotic resistance, the burden of disease and health care costs for the community. At present, pneumococcal vaccines are the only vaccines available for prevention of bacterial respiratory tract infections. The recently licensed 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine Prevnar® was shown to prevent 7% of overall AOM episodes and 9% of recurrent AOM episodes in infants and toddlers, provided vaccinations were started early in life at age 2 months. Similarly, a tertiary post-hoc analysis in a randomised trial in healthy infants showed the conjugate vaccine to prevent radiographically confirmed episodes of lower respiratory tract infections by 20-30%, at least in children younger than 2 years. Afterwards, the efficacy seems to fall off. Vaccination with pneumococcal conjugate vaccine after 1 year of age in children with a history of recurrent acute otitis failed to show any benefit in prevention of new AOM episodes. The 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines are not currently recommended at childhood age for prevention of respiratory tract infections.
