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Although pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine is a standard preventive intervention — and serves as a “quality indicator” in some settings — controversy over its effectiveness simmers in the background. This latest contribution is a meta-analysis funded by the World Health Organization, which recently published a position paper on this topic.
Researchers analyzed 22 randomized trials with 100,000 subjects. The current 23-valent vaccine was used in eight trials, and previous lower-valent vaccines were used in the others. In the overall analysis, pneumococcal vaccine significantly lowered incidences of “presumptive pneumonia” and “all pneumonia” (by 36% and 27%, respectively). However, the vaccine was ineffective in a subgroup of higher-quality…