Effectiveness of 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in the prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease in children aged 7–59 months. A matched case-control study

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the administration of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in a region with an intermediate vaccination coverage.A matched case-control study was carried out in children aged 7–59 months with invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) admitted to two university hospitals in Catalonia. Three controls matched for hospital, age, sex, date of hospitalization and underlying disease were selected for each case. Information on the vaccination status of cases and controls was obtained from the vaccination card, the child's health card, the hospital medical record or the vaccination register of the primary healthcare center where the child was attended for non-severe conditions. A conditional logistic regression analysis was made to control for the effect of possible confounding variables.The adjusted vaccination effectiveness of the complete vaccination schedule (3 doses at 2, 4 and 6 months and a fourth dose at 15 months, 2 doses at least two months apart in children aged 12–23 months or a single dose in children aged >24 months) in preventing IPD caused by vaccine serotypes was 93.7% (95% CI 51.8–99.2). It was not effective in preventing cases caused by non-vaccine serotypes.The results of this study carried out in a population with intermediate vaccination coverage confirm those of other observational studies showing high levels of effectiveness of routine 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccination.

► Case-control study to assess 7-valent-pneumococcal conjugate vaccine effectiveness.
► Pneumonia with empyema due to non-vaccine serotypes was the principal clinical form.
► Three doses of vaccine in children <1 year were required to be considered vaccinated.
► A high level of effectiveness against cases caused by vaccine serotypes was observed.