This vaccine is only for children. For those over age five, a different pneumonia vaccine is still recommended routinely for adults over age 65 and for children two years or older with chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. The traditional pneumonia vaccine is a plain polysaccharide vaccine. The newer one is conjugated which makes it more effective. This is a major advance because the disease kills at least 200 children each year in the U.S. Because of this, we have recognized the importance of giving this vaccine.
All vaccines contain small amounts of material other than the virus or bacteria.
These contents generally are used as preservatives or stabilizers or to make the vaccine more effective. Common ingredients include egg protein and the antibiotic neomycin. These contents are present in very small amounts and have no effect generally on the recipient. Chickenpox vaccine is a live virus. The vaccine's virus grows and stimulates the immune system to produce immunity to the vaccine's virus which also protects against the disease virus.