Impact of the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine on the incidences of community-acquired pneumonia and pneumonia-related hospitalizations in children ≤5 years after its implementation into the national immunization program of Turkey.

The aim of the study was to investigate changes in the incidences of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and CAP-related hospitalizations following introduction of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) in children ≤5 years of age into the national immunization programme (NIP) of Turkey. PCV7 was included in the NIP of Turkey in November 2008 and was replaced by PCV13 in late 2011. Changes in the incidences of CAP and CAP-related hospitalizations per 100,000 children admissions were investigated from 2011 to 2017. A total of 225,963 children visits were recorded; CAP was diagnosed in 4863 (2.15%) children and 1086 (22%) of them hospitalized between 2011 and 2017. The incidence of CAP declined from 5448 to 1144/100,000 from 2011 to 2017 (p = .001, r = -0.965). When the mean annual incidence of CAP between the transition period of PCV13 (2011/2012) was compared with a post-PCV13 period (2016/2017), CAP incidence was found to be 22% lower (p = .009). Also, the incidence of CAP-related hospitalization decreased significantly from 943 to 335/100,000 from 2011 to 2017 (p = .004 r = -0.91). Moreover, the mean incidence of CAP hospitalization declined 35% (p = .01) between the transition period of PCV13 and a post-PCV13 period. Thus, our study showed a significant reductions in the incidences of CAP and CAP-related hospitalization in children ≤5 years-old after the implementation of PCV13 into the NIP of Turkey.