The Disease

The pneumococcus bacterium (bug) can cause pneumonia and meningitis. However, like some other bugs, it can also live harmlessly in the noses of many children.¹ Though the bug is a common cause of ear infections in children, the purpose of the vaccine is to prevent the more serious, or invasive, form of the disease, which causes meningitis, blood poisoning and pneumonia in roughly equal proportions. These are serious illnesses, killing up to 1 in 10 children who contract the disease.² Before immunisation, the risk of a child getting IPD at any time before the age of five was 1 in 850. 20 children under 5 died from IPD every year in England & Wales.

Click here to see recommended vaccines

Go back to diseases at a glance

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

¹ Dagan R et al. Reduction of nasopharyngeal carriage of pneumococci during the second year of life by a heptavalent conjugate pneumococcal vaccine. Journal of Infectious Diseases 1996; 174(6): 1271-8.

² Melegaro A, Edmunds WJ, Pebody R, Miller E, George R. The current burden of pneumococcal disease in England and Wales. Journal of Infection 2006; 52(1): 37-48.