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About the Authors:
Adam L. Cohen
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Thomas Taylor Jr
Affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Monica M. Farley
Affiliation: Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
William Schaffner
Affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America
Lindsey J. Lesher
Affiliation: Minnesota Department of Health, St. Paul, Minnesota, United States of America
Kenneth A. Gershman
Affiliation: Colorado Department of Health and the Environment, Denver, Colorado, United States of America
Nancy M. Bennett
Affiliation: Rochester University School of Medicine, Rochester, New York, United States of America
Arthur Reingold
Affiliation: University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America
Ann Thomas
Affiliation: Oregon Department of Health, Portland, Oregon, United States of America
Joan Baumbach
Affiliation: New Mexico Department of Health, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States of America
Lee H. Harrison
Affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
Susan Petit
Affiliation: Connecticut Department of Public Health, Hartford, Connecticut, United States of America
Bernard Beall
Affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Elizabeth Zell
Affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Matthew Moore
Affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Introduction
The World Health Organization encourages countries that introduce pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) into their routine childhood immunization system to monitor the impact of the vaccine and the vaccination program on pneumococcal disease [1]. Many countries, including the United States, administer a 3-dose infant schedule plus a booster dose in the second year of life. The United States first introduced heptavalent PCV (PCV7; Prev[e]nar, Pfizer) in 2000 which was replaced by 13-valent vaccine (PCV13) in 2010. Other countries have introduced the vaccine using other regimens, in particular, 2 doses for infants plus a booster dose or 3 infant doses without a booster.
The efficacy of PCV is not generally in dispute; the randomized controlled trial (RCT) remains the gold standard for calculating vaccine efficacy. A recent meta-analysis of 11 published RCTs in a number of settings found that...