Journal Mobile

Author(s): 
DJ Inverarity, MA Diggle
Journal Issue: 
Volume 40: Issue 4: 2010

Format

Abstract

 

Surveillance  of  the  serotypes  causing  invasive  pneumococcal  diseases  in the  UK  has  indicated  increasing  incidence  of  serotype  1-  and  serotype  3-related disease in recent years. The introduction of a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine to the paediatric  vaccination  schedule  in  2006,  which  did  not  cover  these  serotypes,  has been  regarded  as  a  contributing  factor.  Serotypes  1  and  3  were  perhaps  the  most extensively  studied  pneumococcal  serotypes  in  the  early  twentieth  century  when pneumococcal  serotyping  began.  Such  historical  observations  are  pertinent  to  our understanding of contemporary disease manifestations for these serotypes as many parallels can be seen between their behaviour in the early twentieth century and the early twenty-first century. There are many relevant lessons to be learned from these pre-antibiotic era descriptions and the observations of our predecessors.

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