Pneumococcal Disease Prevention

Prevention of pneumococcal disease before it occurs is key.

Prevention saves lives, and spares children, their families, and their communities undue suffering.

Determining the cause of pneumonia is challenging. Pneumonia is most often diagnosed clinically by symptoms that may include fever, cough and fast or difficult breathing. It is difficult for providers to distinguish between bacterial and viral causes of pneumonia because the the clinical symptoms are often similar. This can make appropriate treatment of pneumonia difficult. Radiography and laboratory tests can be helpful in confirming pneumonia and determining the organism causing it. However, use of chest x-ray, blood culture, and other tests is limited by cost and technical challenges in many areas of the world. Furthermore, although pneumonia may be caused by bacteria, it is often not found in the blood.

In addition to the heavy emotional toll of illness, treating pneumococcal disease can cause serious financial difficulties for families and communities, contributing to the cycle of poverty. The costs of illness include: direct medical costs of illness; non-medical direct costs; and productivity costs. Further, treatment may be inadequate to prevent devastating sequelae of the disease (e.g. deafness from pneumococcal meningitis).

Despite these tremendous challenges, there is good news. Low-tech, cost-effective solutions exist to protect children against pneumococcal disease and prevent the disease before it occurs:

Protection

• Adequate nutrition helps to ensure a well-functioning immune system to protect children from pneumococcal diseases, as well as other illnesses. Children who are undernourished are at greater risk of suffering death or disability during childhood than those who receive adequate nutrition. In fact, children who are underweight are four times more likely to die of pneumonia than children who are normal weight.
• Exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life is a key component of adequate nutrition. Infants who are exclusively breastfed have a lower risk of infection and severe disease than those who lack this important source of nutrition. Children who are not breastfed are twice as likely to die of pneumonia before age 18 months compared to children who are breastfed.

Prevention

• Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines are a well-tolerated and effective option for preventing pneumococcal diseases among children, as well as others in the community. By preventing disease, pneumococcal vaccines also reduce the need for antibiotics, the inappropriate use of which can create resistant strains of bacteria.