Immunization with a pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide vaccine during pregnancy

The feasibility of preventing invasive pneumococcal infections during the first few months of life by immunization during pregnancy has been investigated. One hundred and fifty Gambian women were immunized with either a 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine or a meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine during the last trimester of pregnancy. Pregnant women showed a good antibody response to five of the six pneumococcal polysaccharides tested (types 1, 3, 5, 6, 14 and 19) but not to type 6 polysaccharide. Mean cord blood/maternal blood IgG antibody ratios varied from 24% (type 1) to 49% (type 3) and differed substantially between individual mother/infant pairs. Pneumococcal antibody levels were higher at birth in infants of women immunized with pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine than in control infants. However, these antibodies disappeared rapidly during the first few months of life and it is uncertain how much clinical protection against pneumococcal infection maternal immunization would have provided.