Study finds pneumonia vaccine paying dividends

CHICAGO, Dec 3 (Reuters) - A vaccine against pneumonia and other infections routinely given to U.S. children since 2000 is paying dividends for toddlers younger than 2, researchers said on Monday.

A look at a database covering the records of tens of thousands of children from 1997 to 2004 found that hospital admissions for all types of pneumonia declined by 52.4 percent over the period and outpatient visits for pneumonia dropped by more than 41 percent.

Prevnar, also known as PCV7 and made by Wyeth (WYE.N), protects against seven strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria, which causes not only pneumonia, but meningitis, ear infections and other ills. It is one of several bugs that can cause pneumonia.

The number of U.S. children aged 19 to 35 months who had received three or more doses of Prevnar grew from 41 percent in 2002 to 83 percent in 2005, according to the report published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

"These results add to the growing evidence base of benefits of PCV7 vaccination and suggest an important role for the vaccine in reducing the burden of pneumonia and associated medical costs," Fangjun Zhou and colleagues at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote in the report.

Worldwide, pneumonia is the leading cause of childhood illness and death, with most of the 2 million annual childhood deaths occurring in developing countries. (Reporting by Michael Conlon; editing by Maggie Fox)