New Findings About Protection Against Pneumococcal Disease; Findings Hoped to Spur Development of Improved Vaccine.

Byline: Children's Hospital Boston

BOSTON, March 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- Since 2000, U.S. infants have been routinely immunized against pneumococcal (Streptococcus pneumoniae) infection. Now, Boston researchers have made a surprising discovery about natural immunity to pneumococcus. Two related studies, led by Dr. Richard Malley of the Children's Hospital Boston Division of Infectious Diseases and Dr. Marc Lipsitch of the Harvard School of Public Health, suggest that natural protection from pneumococcal disease may derive from some previously unrecognized immune mechanism, which could possibly be exploited for a new vaccine. The latest study appears in the current (March 29) issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the U.S., before the advent of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, known as Prevnar, S. pneumoniae caused more than 7 …