Cochrane: There is not enough evidence to assess whether using pneumococcal vaccination during pregnancy can prevent infant infections.
Although the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease is variable across the world, the rate of serious illness or death is high in children who get this infection.
The Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) organism colonizes the upper respiratory tract and can cause bacteremia, meningitis, pneumonia and other lower respiratory tract, and upper respiratory tract infections, including otitis media and sinusitis.
Newborn vaccination schedules of three primary doses with a booster dose could reduce the impact of pneumococcal disease in immunized children, but these vaccinations have no protective effect in infants less than three months of age.
Maternal pneumococcal immunization during pregnancy may be a way of preventing pneumococcal disease during the infant's first months of life.
We included seven randomized controlled trials. A total of 919 pregnant women participated in the six randomized controlled trials that contributed data to this review. The trials compared 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine with control vaccine. All women received a single injection of pneumococcal or control vaccine (where used). The women’s mean gestational age at the time of immunization was between 27 and 38 weeks, where stated.
Only two trials with 241 pregnancies reported on neonatal infections. This was not enough information to say whether pneumococcal vaccination during pregnancy led to fewer infant infections. Two trials with 146 pregnancies reported on infant nasal carriage of pneumococci (pneumococcal colonization), which was not enough evidence to show an effect in reducing colonization at two to three months of age or six to seven months of age.
The included trials were of reasonable quality.
There was no difference between pneumococcal vaccine and control vaccine for tenderness at the injection site. No serious adverse events were reported in the trials.