TUESDAY, Sept. 19, 2023 (HealthDay News) — For children with sickle cell disease (SCD), the rates of invasive pneumococcal infection (IPD) have decreased since introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs), according to a study published online Sept. 12 in Blood Advances.

Thomas V. Adamkiewicz, M.D., from the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, and colleagues examined trends in IPD in children with SCD using data from the Georgia Emerging Infections Program/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Active Bacterial Core Surveillance network.

The researchers identified 104 IPD episodes over 25 years among 3,707 children with hemoglobin SS (HbSS) or hemoglobin SC who were younger than 10 years. Among children with HbSS aged 0 to 4 and 5 to 9 years, there was a decrease in IPD of 87 and 80 percent, respectively, from 1994-1999 to 2010-2018. However, during this period, there was an increase in the IPD incidence rate ratios when comparing children with SCD with the reference population, from 20.2 to 29.2. After 2010, all IPD serotypes identified were those not included in the 13-valent PCV (PCV13). The effectiveness of the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23) against non-PCV13 serotypes included in PPSV23 plus 15A/15C was 92 percent within three years of vaccination. PPSV23 would cover 62 percent of non-PCV13-serotype IPD in children with SCD, while 16, 51, and 92 percent would be covered by PCV15, PCV20, and PCV21/V116 (in development), respectively.

“IPD remains a persistent, life-threatening risk in children with SCD, thus underscoring the need for vaccines with broader serotype coverage and continued IPD surveillance to identify emerging targets for vaccines and other prophylactic strategies,” the authors write.

One author disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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