Invasive infections caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae in a tertiary-level children ́s hospital before the introduction of the conjugate vaccine. Clinical characteristics and serotypes involved

Abstract

Invasive pneumococcal diseases are the main cause of morbidity and mortality in children. In the Hospital "Prof. Dr. Juan P. Garrahan", between October 1 st , 2008 and September 30 th , 2011 all invasive pneumococcal diseases with positive blood cultures were retrospectively studied before the implementation of the universal immunization schedule with the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. A total of 124 patients were identified, and their mean age was 48.3 months (range: 1-216). In this population, 58.9% (n: 73) were OVER 2 years old and 89% (n: 65) of them had an underlying disease. The most frequent clinical presentation was pneumonia. The most frequent S. pneumoniae serotypes identified were: 14 (22.5%, n: 25), 6 (14.4%, n: 16), 19 (8.1%, n: 9), 23 (7.2%, n: 8), 1 (6.3%, n: 7), 5 (4.5%, n: 5), and 7 (7.2%, n: 8). Of the S. pneumoniae serotypes in this series, 82.2% is included in the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. Continuous epidemiological surveillance is essential to further identify the epidemiology and study the evolution of invasive pneumococcal disease in Argentina.