Impact of heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine on invasive disease, antimicrobial resistance and colonization in Alaska Natives: progress towards elimination of a health disparity.
Arctic Investigations Program, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA. thennessey@cdc.gov
We evaluated invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD), antimicrobial resistance and nasopharyngeal colonization before and after introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) in Alaska Natives (AN), a population with high IPD rates. We obtained IPD rates from population-based surveillance. Colonization was determined from annual surveys among rural AN of all ages and from urban children. After vaccine introduction, vaccine-type IPD rates declined by 91% among AN children