Pneumococcal bacteremia in febrile infants presenting to the emergency department 8 years after the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in the Basque Country of Spain.

We included 3088 well-appearing infants aged between 3 and 36 months with fever without a source with a blood culture done as part of their study of fever. Rate of positive blood cultures for Streptococcus pneumoniae occult bacteremia (OB) was 0.58%.

Pneumococcal bacteremia among infants with fever without known source before and after introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in the Basque Country of Spain.

Background: The introduction of vaccination with the heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) has produced an important decrease in the incidence of Streptococcus pneumoniae occult bacteremia (OB). In Spain, PCV7 became available in the last months of 2001, but, to date, it has not been included in the official vaccination schedule of the public health system.

Objective: To describe the impact of pneumococcal vaccination with PCV7 on the incidence of OB caused by S.