Serotype distribution of invasive pneumococcal disease during the first 60 days of life

A total of 8172 isolates from invasive pneumococcal disease was collected from 1992 to 2006 in Germany. From these, 88 were from children ≤60 days of age, where the leading serotypes were 7F (14.8%), 1 and 14 (13.6% each), 3 (8.0%), and 9V (6.8%). The serotype distribution found in this study suggests that pneumococcal infections are transferred to them both by older siblings and adults. The theoretical serotype coverages for the pneumococcal vaccines were 36.8% (7-valent), 67.8% (10-valent), 80.5% (13-valent) and 89.7% (23-valent). Since the serotype distribution among children ≤60 days differs considerably from those vaccinated against pneumococci (6 or 8 weeks up to 5 years), our data suggest, that future epidemiological surveys might profit from a separate presentation of serotype and coverage data from children ≤60 days to increase the accuracy especially of coverage data among children. Penicillin G resistance was observed in 3.1% of meningitis cases. In the non-meningitis group no penicillin G nonsusceptible strains were detected. Concerning cefotaxime, 3.1% of isolates from meningitis cases were resistant, while in the non-meningitis group all isolates were susceptible. Among the non-meningitis cases no nonsusceptibility to amoxicillin was found. Further resistance rates were 14.9% for macrolides, and 4.6% for clindamycin.