Pneumococcal disease in a medium-sized community in the United States
M. A. Mufson, G. Oley and D. Hughey
To assess the importance of bacteremic pneumococcal disease among the
population of one "average" American community, we studied all hospitalized
patients who had Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated from blood, CSF, pleural
fluid, or ascitic fluid during the years 1978 through 1981 in Huntington,
WVa, and environs. Seventeen patients were children younger than 13 years,
and 71 were adults. The case fatality rate from bacteremic pneumococcal
disease among adults was 30%, and among children it was 6%. It was much
higher (88%) in adults older than 50 years with extrapulmonary disease.
Approximately four fifths of the typed isolates from adults or children
were types included in the current vaccine. Eighty-nine percent of the
adults who died of pneumococcal infection had been candidates for
pneumococcal vaccine, but only one patient had received vaccine, just
before becoming ill with pneumococcal disease. These data provide a basis
for widespread use of pneumococcal vaccine in high-risk groups.
