“The data from our study on the trend of pneumonia in Italy, published in 2023”, indicate that in the decade 2010-2019 “approximately 2.5 million hospitalized pneumonias occurred. Every year, approximately 250 thousand pneumonias requiring hospitalization and therefore must be considered severe. Approximately 70% concern subjects over 65 years of age and suffering from chronic diseases”. Age is therefore confirmed as “the factor that exposes one to the greatest risk of contracting the disease and to the greater severity of pneumococcal disease, but these pathologies can be prevented with vaccination. Technological innovation at the vaccination level will help to have increasingly better performing products The 21-valent vaccine is a revolution because” it is based on epidemiological data, “affecting the serotypes most involved in the invasive pathology”. Thus Francesco Vitale, full professor of Hygiene, University of Palermo, director of the Oncology and Public Health department, Aou Policlinico Palermo, during a media tutorial organized by MSD, this morning in Rome, to present the data of numerous phase studies 3 who evaluated V116, the first 21-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine specifically designed to protect adults.
“Pneumococcal pneumonia, also called Streptococcus pneumoniae – continues Vitale – are the most frequent forms of pneumonia for which we know the pathogen.” The study also highlights that “only” for “10% of hospitalized pneumonias” the pathogen that caused them is known, but “pneumococcus is the microorganism most frequently implicated in the genesis of the most serious pneumonias”, equal to “over 20% of the total.” Another interesting data that emerged from the Palermo work concerns the rate of hospitalization for pneumonia, which increases “year by year from the age of 45-50. For example, in the over 45s it increased over the decade by 3.4%, in the over 65s by 3.5%, in the over 70s by 4.3%, in the over 80s by approximately 7%, while in subjects under the age of 18 it decreased by over 4% per year. A phenomenon, this – clarifies the professor – very important, which indicates that the vaccine “administered in childhood” has preserved these subjects from having a severe pneumonia disease which could have led to hospitalization. In the elderly, where coverage is very low, pneumonia is increased over the years together with the severity and hospitalizations”.
The pneumococcus “is a microorganism that takes advantage of the lower capacity of the immune response towards it – Vitale remarks – This happens due to advanced age or the presence of some intercurrent chronic diseases more common in elderly people: diabetes, cardiological diseases, lung diseases (such as asthma or COPD), but also haematological and liver diseases. In subjects with chronic diseases we have hospitalization rates 10-15 times higher than in subjects of the same age without these pathologies. Once contagion has occurred, the bacterium spreads reproduces and can invade an organ or enter the bloodstream. Certainly, among the many pathogens – he concludes – pneumococcus is the one that causes the most serious pneumonia”.
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