Hospital-based pneumococcal immunization: the epidemiologic rationale and its implementation

Many patients hospitalized for or dying of pneumococcal bacteremia have been discharged from a hospital within the previous five years. In addition to age and underlying medical condition, previous hospital care, particularly for high risk conditions, is a useful marker for identifying individuals who are destined to develop serious pneumococcal infections. Relatively few patients, especially those with high risk conditions, would need to receive pneumococcal vaccine at the time of hospital discharge to prevent, within the next five years, each subsequent readmission or death from pneumococcal pneumonia. Although pneumococcal vaccine has not been widely used in the hospital setting, there are sound epidemiologic reasons to expect that organized programs for vaccine delivery in hospitals would be an effective approach to preventing many serious pneumococcal infections.