Effectiveness of 13-Valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Against Invasive Disease Caused by Serotype 3 in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Observational Studies

The 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) is the only licensed PCV with serotype 3 polysaccharide in its formulation. Postlicensure PCV13 effectiveness studies against serotype 3 invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in children have shown inconsistent results. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies to assess PCV13 vaccine effectiveness (VE) for serotype 3 IPD in children. We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane library for studies published before 14 August 2017. We identified 4 published studies and 2 conference posters that provided PCV13 VE estimates stratified by serotype. The pooled PCV13 VE against serotype 3 IPD from the random-effects meta-analysis was 63.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 37.3%-89.7%). A sensitivity analysis including conference posters gave a pooled VE estimate of 72.4% (95% CI, 56.7%-88.0%). The pooled data from case-control studies with similar methodologies and high quality support direct PCV13 protection against serotype 3 IPD in children.