NEW YORK, Nov 08 (Reuters Health) -- Vaccinating elderly patients with chronic lung disease against Streptococcus pneumonia bacteria reduces pneumonia-related hospital admissions and deaths, and leads to considerable medical care cost savings, report US researchers.
But the research team also notes that more than 50% of elderly Americans and other high-risk individuals have not received the pneumococcal vaccine.
In the November 8th Archives of Internal Medicine, a Minnesota-based team reports the results of a 2-year retrospective study involving close to 1,900 elderly patients with chronic lung disease. About two-thirds of them had been vaccinated against pneumonia.
"Pneumococcal vaccination was associated with a 43% reduction in the number of hospitalizations for pneumonia and influenza, and a 29% reduction in the risk of death from all causes," Dr. Kristin L. Nichol of the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center and colleagues report.
And patients who reported receiving both the pneumonia and influenza vaccines had a 72% reduction in hospitalizations for these two diseases and an 82% reduction in deaths from all causes.
Pneumococcal vaccination also led to significant "direct medical care cost savings," according to the investigators. Pneumococcal vaccination saved an average of $294 per vaccine recipient over the 2-year period.
"It's very good news," Nichol told Reuters Health in an interview. The study results "show a convincing reduction in pneumonia rates in this very high-risk population," she added.
Pneumonia caused by Strep pneumonia bacteria causes more than 40,000 deaths in the US each year, with the majority of these deaths occurring in the elderly. Pneumococcal vaccination is recommended for people aged 65 and over, and for those with medical conditions that put them at high risk for pneumonia, such as patients with chronic lung disease. Unlike the flu vaccine, which must be given each year to offer protection against changes in the circulating strains of flu virus, the pneumococcal vaccine is usually only given once because it can offer life-long protection.
