Pharmacotherapy Newsletter

Volume 1, Issue 32, 08/24/2009

Question

Why do children less than 2 years of age need 4 doses of conjugated pneumococcal vaccine whereas adults only need 1 dose in many cases?

Answer

In the previous issue, the rationale for why children less than 2 years of age receive conjugated pneumococcal vaccine while adults receive an unconjugated pneumococcal vaccine was described.(1)  Please refer to it for background information that is built upon in this issue.  The paragraph below is a brief review describing the main factors involved in the generation of immunity against bacterial pathogens such as Streptococcus pneumoniae. 

First is it is important to recognize that some bacterial pathogens have "evaded" or are more readily able to "escape" the innate (first line responders) immune response because of their....

The complete answer to this question comes with a diagram that explains the mechanism for this difference in side effect.

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