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After immunization of infants with seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) became routine in 2000, rates of invasive pneumococcal disease declined among both children and adults. In randomized clinical trials, the vaccine reduced the incidence of all-cause pneumonia, but its effect on pneumonia rates in the general population has not been determined.
Using a database of discharge diagnoses from about 20% of all U.S. hospitalizations, investigators estimated national admission rates for all-cause and pneumococcal pneumonia for each month from 1997 through 2004. About 4% of admissions were for all-cause pneumonia, and 4% of pneumonia hospitalizations (fewer in young children) were coded as pneumococcal. Among children younger than 2…