Epidemiology of invasive childhood pneumococcal infections in Greece

A retrospective study was conducted to identify the epidemiologic character istics of invasive pneumococcal infections among children <14 y of age in o ur geographic region. During a 5-y period, from 1995 to 1999, 590 cases of invasive pneumococcal infection were identified in Aghia Sophia Children's Hospital, Athens, Greece. The male to female ratio was 1.4:1 and 64% of pat ients were younger than 5 y of age. The overall annual incidence rate was e stimated as 44/100000 children <14 y of age, whereas the incidence rate for children <5 y of age was 100/100000. The most common types of infections w ere pneumonia (472 cases; 133 definite and 339 probable), bacteraemia witho ut focus (79 cases), and meningitis (33 cases). A seasonal variation of inv asive pneumococcal infections was noted, with two peaks-one during spring a nd the other during autumn. Only two cases with meningitis died and one dev eloped permanent neurological sequelae, representing a case-fatality rate f or meningitis of 6%. Serogroups 14, 19, 6, 18, 23, 4 and 9 were the most pr evalent, comprising 77% of 92 serotyped isolates. Conclusion: Invasive pneumococcal infections cause considerable morbidity i n the paediatric population in the Athens metropolitan area. Sixty-six perc ent of the serotypes causing invasive pneumococcal disease in our region ar e included in the 7-valent conjugate vaccine.