Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Practice Clinical updates

Community acquired pneumonia in children

BMJ 2017; 356 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j686 (Published 02 March 2017) Cite this as: BMJ 2017;356:j686

Rapid Response:

Six vaccines (and not three as author says) are effective in reducing burden of Community acquired pneumonia in children

Author enumerates following vaccines which contribute to reduce burden of community acquired pneumonia (BMJ 2017;356:j686):

Various public health measures reduce CAP incidence. The current UK vaccination schedule involves doses of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) at 2, 4, and 12 months old. Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) vaccination is given at 2, 3, and 4 months with a booster at 1 year. An annual influenza vaccine is given to children between 2 and 8 years old every September, including children in school years 1, 2, and 3. Additional pneumococcal, and in some cases influenza, vaccination is provided for high risk children with asplenia or splenic dysfunction, cochlear implants (due to the meningitis risk), chronic disease, complement disorders, and immunosuppression.

Here, we may quip that Diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), and measles are other vaccine-preventable diseases that may have a respiratory tract component but also affect other systems. Their name should have been just mentioned to complete the list.

Competing interests: No competing interests

10 March 2017
Neeru Gupta
Scientist F
Jugal Kishore, Akshun Jani, Neeta Kumar.
Indian Council of Medical Research
Ansari Nagar, New Delhi-110029.