WHO position paper: Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in infants and children under 5 years of age

Overview

Pneumococcal infections can lead to serious invasive diseases such as meningitis, septicaemia and pneumonia, as well as milder but more common illnesses such as sinusitis and otitis media. The causative agent, Streptococcus pneumoniae, frequently colonizes the human nasopharynx and is transmitted mainly through respiratory droplets. Infants and young children are the main reservoir of this organism, in whom the cross-sectional point prevalence of nasopharyngeal (NP) carriage ranges from 27% to 85%, with higher carriage rates among children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and in some indigenous populations in high-income countries.

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