![]() It is given to adults and certain high-risk younger people. The current version protects against more types of pneumococcus (23 types) than any other pneumococcal vaccine available. The first type is called a polysaccharide vaccine, often abbreviated “PPSV.” First licensed in 1977, this vaccine contains the sugar (polysaccharide) coating from several types of pneumococcal bacteria. There are two types of pneumococcal vaccines. Pneumococcus is also a common cause of pneumonia.įind out more about meningitis in this video discussion between two CHOP doctors. Both of these vaccine-preventable diseases can cause meningitis. Smoking and increased risk of diseaseīecause smoking disrupts the lining of the throat and lungs, people who smoke are at increased risk of some infections, including pneumococcus and meningococcus. Activities like smoking can also disrupt the lining of the nose and throat and allow for pneumococcal infections and subsequent disease. Pneumococcus is known as an “opportunistic” infection because it lives in the respiratory tract of people without causing disease, but when the respiratory tract is compromised by an infection such as influenza, the bacteria then invades the lungs (pneumonia), bloodstream (sepsis), or brain and spinal cord (meningitis). But every year tens of thousands of children suffer severe, often debilitating, and occasionally fatal infections with pneumococcus ─ most of these children were previously healthy and well nourished. Most children who first come in contact with pneumococcus don't have a problem. However, as these maternal antibody levels diminish, the baby becomes vulnerable. The antibodies that the baby gets before birth usually last for a few months. Because most adults have immunity to pneumococcus, a mother will passively transfer antibodies from her own blood to the blood of her baby before the baby is born. Many children will come in contact with pneumococcus sometime in the first two years of life. Pneumococcus is a bacterium that is commonly found lining the surface of the nose and the back of the throat in fact, about 25 of every 100 people are colonized with pneumococcus. Although the vast majority of children with pneumonia recover, the disease is occasionally fatal. Empyema can compress and collapse the lung. Sometimes the bacteria cause pus to accumulate not only inside the lung, but between the lung and the chest wall (called empyema). Children with pneumonia develop high fever, cough and rapid, difficult breathing. Pneumococcus is a bacterium that causes several different types of serious infections in children. This makes the use of vaccines all the more important. Unfortunately, we have taken our first steps into a post-antibiotic era. Our reliance on and overuse of antibiotics have led to this resistance, backing us into a corner when treating infections caused by these and other types of bacteria. Strains of pneumococcus have now been identified that are highly resistant to most antibiotics. As a result, treatment with those antibiotics is not effective against those resistant strains. “Resistance” means that bacteria have changed, or evolved, so that they are no longer killed by one or more antibiotics. However, over time many pneumococcal strains have become resistant not only to penicillin, but also to other antibiotics developed to combat bacterial infections. ![]() ![]() In the 1940s all of the strains of pneumococcus could be treated with the antibiotic, penicillin. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure Infants and young children are at greatest risk of serious infection because they are unable to develop immunity to the sugar (or polysaccharide) that coats the bacteria, something that older children can do when they are more than 2 years of age. Before the vaccine, every year pneumococcus caused about 700 cases of meningitis, 17,000 cases of bloodstream infections, 200 deaths and 5 million ear infections in children. A form of the pneumococcal vaccine was first introduced for use in adults in 1977 a second type of pneumococcal vaccine was introduced for all infants and young children in the United States in 2000. ![]() The diseases caused by pneumococcus include meningitis (inflammation of the lining of the brain), bloodstream infections and pneumonia (infection of the lungs). Much like Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), pneumococcal bacteria ( Streptococcus pneumoniae) affect the most defenseless of the population (infants, toddlers and the elderly). ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |