Peer-reviewed article
Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine effectiveness against hypoxemia in children with suspected pneumonia in Kenya; analysis from a real-world sentinel surveillance platform.
Fredrick Mutisya, George O Agogo, Jared Opudo, Barbara Jepkorir, Athman Mwatondo et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study evaluated how well the 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-10) protects children against severe pneumonia in Kenya. Researchers analysed data from over 3,500 children aged 6 weeks to 59 months with suspected pneumonia collected from 13 health facilities between 2017 and 2024. Fully vaccinated children were less likely to have low blood oxygen levels than unvaccinated children. The vaccine was found to be 39% effective at preventing hypoxemia, a serious complication of pneumonia.
Key points
- Hypoxemia occurred in 37% of fully vaccinated children, 41% in partially vaccinated, and 52% in unvaccinated children
- The adjusted vaccine effectiveness for full PCV-10 vaccination against hypoxemia was 39% (95% CI: 6-61%)
- 94% of children in the analysis were up to date with PCV-10 vaccination, indicating high coverage in Kenya
- The study used real-world sentinel surveillance data from 13 sites across Kenya over 7 years
- PCV-10 was introduced in Kenya in 2011 and has been part of the routine immunization program
Limitations
The study excluded children with confirmed non-pneumococcal causes of illness, which may mean the results apply only to cases where pneumococcal disease is suspected but not confirmed. The high vaccination coverage in the dataset may not represent all children in Kenya, potentially reflecting selection bias towards facilities with better immunization programs.
Abstract
The 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-10) has reduced the burden of pneumococcal disease in children. Integrated facility-based sentinel surveillance (IFBS) monitors a range of common causes of febrile illnesses in Kenya. We used this system to assess the real-world vaccine effectiveness (VE) of PCV-10 against hypoxemia among children with suspected pneumonia in Kenya. We analysed IFBS data collected from 13 sites across Kenya from 2017 to 2024. We included children aged 6 weeks to 59 months with reported fever or temperature ≥38.0°C, respiratory features consistent with suspected pneumonia, and a copy of their vaccination records (i.e., child health booklet). We excluded children with a positive test result indicating a non-Pneumococcal aetiology (i.e., positive result on a multiplex PCR, malaria microscopy or rapid diagnostic test, or SARS-CoV-2 PCR). We assessed the association of vaccination status with hypoxemia, defined as an oxygen saturation of ≤90%, adjusting for age, sex, and year. VE was calculated as 1 minus the odds ratio of hypoxemia among children with suspected pneumonia calculated using generalized estimating equations to account for clustering by site. Overall, 3,533 children were analysed, with 94% being up to date with PCV-10 vaccination. The median patient age was 11 months (interquartile range: 6-17). Hypoxemia was observed in 37% of fully vaccinated children, 41% in partially vaccinated children, and 52% in unvaccinated children (χ² test, p = 0.03). The adjusted VE for full vaccination against hypoxemia in children with suspected pneumonia was 39% (95% confidence interval: 6-61%). Among children with suspected pneumonia in Kenya, PCV-10 vaccination was associated with reduced hypoxemia. The PCV-10 coverage in this dataset was high, potentially reflecting a robust routine vaccination effort since PCV-10 was introduced in Kenya in 2011. High-quality surveillance data can be used to provide real-world evidence to support routine immunization programs.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-10) given as part of routine immunization program
- Population
- Children aged 6 weeks to 59 months with reported fever (≥38.0°C) and respiratory features consistent with suspected pneumonia in Kenya
Key finding
Hypoxemia was observed in 37% of fully vaccinated children versus 52% in unvaccinated children (p=0.03)
Mutisya et al. · PubMed (US National Library of Medicine) · 26 Jun 2026