Group vaccinations help prevent pneumonia
In other words, adults who had not been vaccinated but lived with vaccinated children were approximately half as likely to be infected by the bacteria as adults who lived with children who had not been vaccinated. This herd immunity has been well documented.
For example, even if you have not had chicken pox or have not been vaccinated against it, getting the disease is probably lower on your list of worries than contracting this year's flu. You are protected because almost everyone around you is immune; there is no one who can get chicken pox and pass it on to you.
This means that in order to significantly lower the morbidity rate of a disease, it isn't necessary to inoculate every member of a given community. Just making sure all children receive the vaccine as part of routine vaccinations, for instance, will have a dramatic effect.
PCV is part of the routine childhood immunization schedules in most developed countries and is spreading to developing countries. In the future, O'Brien plans to look further into how vaccination affects the rate and pattern of infection in a community, as well as study at different strains of pneumococcal disease.
Her studies will still focus on the Navajo and Apache living in the southwest. "They continue to have rates of disease and colonization rates that are higher than the general U.S. population," O'Brien said.
However, this study was definitely part of a bigger global picture. "If the global community can realize the successful introduction of PCVs," O'Brien said, "these vaccines have the potential to save millions of lives of children who otherwise would die from pneumococcal disease."
For example, even if you have not had chicken pox or have not been vaccinated against it, getting the disease is probably lower on your list of worries than contracting this year's flu. You are protected because almost everyone around you is immune; there is no one who can get chicken pox and pass it on to you.
This means that in order to significantly lower the morbidity rate of a disease, it isn't necessary to inoculate every member of a given community. Just making sure all children receive the vaccine as part of routine vaccinations, for instance, will have a dramatic effect.
PCV is part of the routine childhood immunization schedules in most developed countries and is spreading to developing countries. In the future, O'Brien plans to look further into how vaccination affects the rate and pattern of infection in a community, as well as study at different strains of pneumococcal disease.
Her studies will still focus on the Navajo and Apache living in the southwest. "They continue to have rates of disease and colonization rates that are higher than the general U.S. population," O'Brien said.
However, this study was definitely part of a bigger global picture. "If the global community can realize the successful introduction of PCVs," O'Brien said, "these vaccines have the potential to save millions of lives of children who otherwise would die from pneumococcal disease."
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