The prevention of pneumococcal infections.

Abstract

Streptococcus pneumoniae causes considerable number of diseases like pneumonia, bacteremia or sepsis, meningitis, otitis media, sinusitis, peritonitis, endocarditis, osteomyelitis, septic arthritis, and soft tissue infection [1,2,3]. According to the Korean statistics of death, 12,021 people died of pneumonia during the year 2014, mortality is 23.7 per 100,000 people, accounting for 4.5% of deaths, which meant the fifth frequent cause of mortality in Korea [4]. However, the morbidity and mortality of pneumonia caused by S. pneumoniae was not known because the national surveillance was not yet performed. Woo et al. [2] investigated the 588 patients with pneumonia admitted in University Hospitals and co-organized with the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases, which revealed the etiological agents in 225 patients (38.3%). S. pneumoniae was identified in 57 of 225 patients (21.7%). Average length of hospital stay was 13.4 days, 61 cases (10.4%) received intensive care, 42 died and mortality was 7.1%. Six patients died of pneumococcal pneumonia, mortality rate was 14% (6/42) [2,3,4].