Pneumococcal vaccine

To gather information about your vaccination status, talk to your parents or other caregivers. Check with your health care provider's office. If necessary, you may check with previous health care organizations where you received care. Or check with your schools or employers who required vaccinations. You could also contact your state health department to see if it has a registry that includes adult immunizations. Talk to your health care provider about your specific needs. Adult vaccines to consider include: • COVID-19. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine might prevent you from getting COVID-19 or from becoming seriously ill or dying due to COVID-19. • Flu (influenza). To prevent the flu, the CDC recommends annual flu vaccination for everyone ages 6 months or older. Adults age 50 and older should not get the nasal spray flu vaccine. The flu can cause serious complications in older adults. • Hepatitis B. The CDC recommends all adults ages 19 to 59 receive the hepatitis B vaccine. The vaccine also is recommended for adults 60 and older who have risk factors for hepatitis B. It is not specifically recommended for those age 60 and older without known risk factors. But if you are in that group, you may receive the hepatitis B vaccine if you want it. Hepatitis B is a disease that affects the liver. • Human papillomavirus (HPV). The CDC recommends the HPV vaccine for girls and boys ages 11 or 12. Teens and young adults who begin the vaccine series later, at ages 15 to...

Although it varies with age and geographical distribution, the global burden of infection with Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) remains considerable. The elderly, and younger adults with comorbid conditions, are at particularly high risk of pneumococcal infection, and this risk will increase as the population ages. Vaccination should be the backbone of our current strategies to deal with this infection. Main body: This manuscript reviews the history of the development of pneumococcal vaccines, and the impact of different vaccines and vaccination strategies over the past 111 years. It documents the early years of vaccine development in the gold mines of South Africa, when vaccination with killed pneumococci was shown to be effective, even before the recognition that different pneumococci were antigenically distinct. The development of type-specific vaccines, still with whole killed pneumococci, showed a high degree of efficacy. The identification of the importance of the pneumococcal capsule heralded the era of vaccination with capsular polysaccharides, although with the advent of penicillin, interest in pneumococcal vaccine development waned. The efforts of Austrian and his colleagues, who documented that despite penicillin therapy, patients still died from pneumococcal infection in the first 96 h, ultimately led to the licensing first of a 14-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide in 1977 followed by the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide in 1983. The principal prob...

There are two vaccines available to protect children from pneumococcal disease, a serious infection caused by a bacterium known as Streptococcus pneumoniae. Only one of the vaccines, PCV13, is considered safe for children under the age of 2, This vaccine is important because infants and very young children are at higher risk for several dangerous infections, including The second vaccine, PPSV23, has been available for more than 30 years and is recommended for children two years and older. It protects against 23 types of pneumococcal bacteria. Here is information about these vaccines to help you make informed decisions about protecting the health of your children as well as your own. What Is Pneumococcal Disease? Pneumococcal disease is an infection caused by the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae or pneumococcus. People can be infected with the bacteria, or they can carry it in their throat, and not be ill. Those carriers can still spread it, primarily in droplets from their nose or mouth when they breathe, Depending on what organ or part of the body is infected, pneumococcal disease will cause any of several serious illnesses, including: • • Pneumonia, an infection of the • • Bacteremia, a dangerous infection of the • There are more than 6,000 deaths each year in the U.S. as a result of pneumococcal disease. More than half of those deaths are in adults who, according to CDC recommendations, should have been vaccinated. In children under age 5, infection with the pneumococc...