Type-specific pneumococcal respiratory disease in the elderly and chronically III.

Type-specific pneumococcal respiratory disease was studied in a chronic-disease hospital during a 27-month period. Isolates from 50 patients with pneumonia and from 24 patients with chronic bronchitis were available for typing. Vaccine types were isolated from 74 per cent of patients with pneumonia and from 42 per cent of patients with chronic bronchitis. Pneumococcal types isolated from 5 of 8 patients with bacteremia and from 6 of 9 patients who died were also included in the vaccine. The data suggest that, theoretically, closed populations of elderly and chronically ill patients would benefit from vaccination in an attempt to control pneumococcal pneumonia. Less clear is the potential role vaccination in patients with chronic bronchitis.