Prevention and treatment of pneumococcal disease

Abstract

Pneumococcal disease kills more than 1.6 million people annually across the globe, and 900 000 of these deaths occur in children under the age of 5 years.¹ This is staggering when compared to the number of deaths reported worldwide due to swine flu over the past year (25 174 deaths from 19 April 2009-12 April 2010), and heartbreaking when considering that many pneumococcal diseases can be prevented through vaccination.²