Immunogenicity of pneumococcal revaccination in patients with chronic disease.

Background: To prevent serious pneumococcal infections, 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine is recommended for individuals over 24 months of age with chronic predisposing diseases and for healthy older adults. This nonrandomized controlled study in rural Alaska assessed the immunogenicity of revaccination in adults.

Methods: Twenty-six adults, 33 to 88 years of age, vaccinated a mean of 7.

Pneumococcal vaccination in a remote population of high-risk Alaska Natives.

In response to an increasing prevalence of serious pneumococcal disease among adult Alaska Natives of northwest Alaska, a 3-year program was begun in 1987 to identify residents of that remote region who were at high risk for developing invasive pneumococcal disease, to determine their pneumococcal vaccination status, and to deliver vaccine to at least 80 percent of those at risk. After reviewing public health nursing and Indian Health Service data bases, the authors identified 1,337 persons, 20 percent of the 6,692 residents of the region, at high risk for invasive pneumococcal infection, defined either by having a specific chronic disease or by age criteria. Cardiovascular disease and alcoholism were the two most common chronic diseases.