If this is not your name, click here. Other Ophthalmic Surgery Organ Transplantation Orthopaedics Other Osteoarthritis Osteoporosis Otitis Otorhino. For the first time, it was demonstrated that vaccinating children in daycare against pneumococcal disease can reduce their bouts of illness and the reliance on the antibiotics that treat these illnesses. Pneumococcal disease ranges from the very serious invasive infections, such as blood poisoning and meningitis to pneumonia and otitis media, the common ear infection. For those who survive it, many are left with permanent neurological deficits including deafness, impaired vision, seizures or mental retardation.
Young children are the most susceptible to all forms of pneumococcal disease.
About 60 percent of children under six attend daycare in the U.S., according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Traditionally antibiotics have been used to treat pneumococcal infections, but many strains of pneumococcal bacteria are rapidly growing resistant to antibiotics, rendering the drugs increasingly ineffective. Resistance to penicillin and other antibiotics is a worldwide problem. In some parts of the United States as well as in some other parts of the world, more than 20 percent of pneumococcal bacteria is resistant to penicillin. If we can prevent the disease, we can limit our use of antibiotics and stave off antibiotic resistance.