The epidemiology of invasive pneumococcal disease in children in Far North Queensland

Abstract

Although the seven- and 11-valent conjugate pneumococcal vaccines cover only approximately 60 and 70%, respectively, of the isolates that cause invasive disease in indigenous children in Far North Queensland, they nevertheless have the potential to prevent much morbidity in and hospitalization of these children. It will be essential to maintain surveillance following the introduction of conjugate pneumococcal vaccines so as to monitor changes in the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease, particularly in high-risk children.

Temporal Trends of Invasive Disease Due to Streptococcus pneumoniae among Children in the Intermountain West: Emergence of Nonvaccine Serogroups

“…These findings have important implications for pneumococcal immunization strategies for children in the IMW and may be relevant to other regions with a high rate of IPD due to isolates from serogroup 1 or other non-PCV7 serogroups [8,10,[49][50][51][52][53][54][55]. Several conjugate vaccine formulations with 9 and 11 antigens have been used experimentally [56][57][58][59].…”

Invasive pneumococcal disease in Indigenous people in north Queensland: an update, 2005–2007

“…Before the introduction of pneumococcal vaccines, the incidences of IPD in Indigenous children 8 and adults were significantly greater than those documented in non‐Indigenous people in north Queensland. Furthermore, a considerable proportion of cases in Indigenous children were caused by non‐7vPCV serotype pneumococci 1 , 8 . For these reasons, it is essential to continue surveillance of IPD in Indigenous people to determine whether non‐7vPCV serotype IPD emerges over time, and, if so, which serotypes are involved.…”

Invasive pneumococcal disease in the Australian Capital Territory and Queanbeyan region: Do high infant rates reflect more disease or better detection?

“…Although the small number of meningitis cases in our study leads to an imprecise estimate of its incidence, it is apparent that infants in the ACT region do not have unusually high rates of meningitis when compared with similar populations (Table 3). A breakdown of infant IPD incidence by disease syndrome shows that the ACT, compared with urban NSW 12 , has higher rates of bacteraemia (88 compared with 62 cases/100 000/year) and bacteraemic pneumonia (56 compared with 14 cases/100 000/year), but similar rates of meningitis (14 compared with 12 cases/100 000/year). While these data would be consistent with the hypothesis that the excess of IPD in ACT infants consists mostly of mild disease that in other populations goes undiagnosed, it is noteworthy that no such excess was found in older children and adults.…”

“…Recent Australian data on IPD incidence have been published 12−17 , but no comparable information has been available for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). In this study we describe the incidence and outcomes of IPD in the ACT and the adjacent New South Wales border city of Queanbeyan prior to the availability of the conjugate pneumococcal vaccines.…”