Pneumococcal vaccines in adults. Where are we now?

Invasive pneumococcal diseases and non-invasive pneumococcal pneumonia are a real public health concern. They are included in the vaccine preventable diseases. In the late 1970s, a polysaccharide vaccine with a 14-valence and then 23-valence was licensed. Nevertheless, the uptake of polysaccharide vaccines in adults stayed at a low level or under the expected Level in most developed countries. As soon as the seven serotypes conjugated vaccine had been licensed for children less than 2 years, it had a high uptake due to a clear impact in terms of direct and, after a few years, indirect efficacy. The serotype spectrum has been recently extended to 13 serotypes (PCV13) due to the emergence of new serotypes uncovered by the 7-valence vaccine. This new formulation has been recently licensed in the US and Europe for adults 50 years old on antigenicity data. It is important today to determine what are the characteristics and expectancies for these different types of vaccine while awaiting the recommendations for the PCV13 by the technical agencies. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.