Julie Verbeke^1,2, Bushra Zucca^1,3, Valerie Flaum⁶, Paul Philipe⁶, Chantal Tsobo⁴, Alexandre Mzabi⁵, Monique Perrin⁵, Armand Biver¹, Meriem Mastouri¹ and Isabel de La Fuente Garcia¹*

¹Department of Pediatrics, National Center for Pediatrics, Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg, Luxembourg
²Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
³Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital of Brussels, Belgium
⁴Microbiology Department, Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg, Luxembourg
⁵Department of Microbiology, National Health Laboratory, Luxembourg
⁶Department of Paediatric Surgery, National Center for Pediatrics, Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg, Luxembourg

*Corresponding Author: Isabel de La Fuente Garcia, Department of Pediatrics, National Center for Pediatrics, Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg, Luxembourg.

Received: November 01, 2021 ; Published: November 24, 2021

Abstract

Streptococcus pneumoniae is the first cause of bacterial pneumonia in children. Since the implementation of routine immunization in 2004, the incidence of severe pneumococcal infections has decreased in Luxembourg. Thirteen-valent conjugated vaccine (PVC13), used routinely since 2010, is the only licensed pneumococcal conjugated vaccine with serotype 3 polysaccharide in its formulation. The incidence rate of empyema in Luxembourg was 5/100.000 person-years (children aged 0 to 6 years old) between 2014 and 2019, representing an annual average of 2.2 admissions in our National Paediatric center.

We report a cluster of 6 cases of complicated pneumonia (empyema, necrosis, and abscess) in otherwise healthy children hospitalized between December 2019 and February 2020 (9 weeks period). Their median age was 4 years (1-5). All of them had been vaccinated with PCV13 according to the national vaccination schedule in Luxembourg. All patients were treated with intravenous antibiotics. Four patients were transiently admitted to the intensive care unit. Two patients underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery to debride the pleural space. All patients recovered from their pneumonia. Pneumococcal pneumonia was confirmed in five patients (positive PCR on pleural fluid) with serotyping being performed in four of them and identifying ser3 pneumococcus.

We present a cluster of cases of complicated pneumococcal pneumonia caused by ser3 pneumococcus in children vaccinated with PCV13. Several other European countries have reported cases of complicated ser3 pneumococcal pneumonia in previously vaccinated children, indicating the need for close monitoring of this serotype and development of better vaccination strategies against ser3 pneumococcus.

Keywords: Pneumococcal Pneumonia; Complicated Pneumonia; Streptococcus pneumoniae Serotype 3; Pneumococcal Conjugated Vaccine; Vaccine Failure

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Citation

Citation: Isabel de La Fuente Garcia., et al. “Cluster of Paediatric Severe Pneumonia Caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae Serotype 3 in Fully Vaccinated Children in Luxembourg”. Acta Scientific Microbiology 4.12 (2021): 67-74.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Isabel de La Fuente Garcia., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.