Imputing the Direct and Indirect Effectiveness of Childhood Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Against Invasive Pneumococcal Disease by Surveying Temporal Changes in Nasopharyngeal Pneumococcal Colonization

The limited capability in most low-to middle-income countries to study the benefit of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) in protecting against invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) calls for alternate strategies to assess this. We used a mathematical model to predict the direct and indirect effectiveness of PCV by analyzing serotype-specific colonization prevalence and IPD incidence prior to and following childhood PCV immunization in South Africa. We analyzed IPD incidence from 2005 to 2012 and colonization studies undertaken in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-uninfected and HIV-infected child-mother dyads from 2007 to 2009 (pre-PCV era), in 2010 (7-valent PCV era), and in 2012 (13-valent PCV era). We compared the model-predicted changes in IPD incidence with observed changes in IPD incidence, according to HIV status, in children aged 3 months-5 years and in women aged 18-45 years. We observed reductions in vaccine-serotype colonization and IPD due to vaccine serotypes among children and women after PCV introduction. Using the changes in vaccine-serotype colonization data, the model-predicted changes in vaccine-serotype IPD incidence rates were similar to the observed changes in PCV-unvaccinated children and adults, but not among children under age 24 months. Surveillance of colonization prior to and following PCV use can be used to impute the indirect protection afforded by PCV in unvaccinated age groups, including those in high-HIV-prevalence settings.