​This is the main finding of a recent article based on data from The Streptococcus pneumoniae Invasive Disease network (SpIDnet).

The study design and analysis controlled for influence of potentially confounding trends, such as improvement of day-care carriage and decreasing prevalence of smoking during the study period.

​Antimicrobial stewardship policies are increasingly being implemented as a measure to prevent and control antimicrobial resistance.

The study compares the incidence and serotype distribution of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) for pneumococcal meningitis and non-meningitis IPD in children from 2007 to 2010 with reference to the pre-vaccination period from 1997 to 2001 in Germany.

This study found a marked reduction in vaccine serotype carriage after PCV7 implementation. The overall pneumococcal, H. influenzae and S. aureus carriage decreased slightly, but not significantly.

This study demonstrates that PCV13 is immunogenic and safe in children previously vaccinated with PCV7. By eliciting high antibacterial immune responses to the additional serotypes, PCV13 provides protection against these serotypes, which are important causes of pneumococcal disease globally.

This study provides an interesting insight on epidemiological changes on incidence and serotype distribution of invasive pneumococcal disease in the general senior population of Southern Catalonia across several years. If confirmed, these findings urge the development of new PCVs in the future to cover more serotypes, especially those emerging due to epidemiological changes.