Population impact of a conjugate vaccine on pneumococcal transmission and disease in Kenya

Vaccines protect the individuals receiving them, but they can also have additional helpful or detrimental effects at the population level. Professor Scott is investigating the impact of a pneumococcal conjugate vaccination at the population level in Kenya. Working at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, he is linking episodes of pneumococcal disease in hospital with immunisation events in clinics, recording this data on a continuously updated register of the resident population (around 270 000 people). His study aims to measure the protection experienced by unvaccinated individuals, along with the extent to which the reduction in transmission of pneumococcal strains targeted by the vaccine is offset by an increase in transmission of non-vaccine strains.