Pneumococcal Meningitis in French Children Before and After the Introduction of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine

In France, despite a high rate of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine coverage, the number of cases of pneumococcal meningitis in children did not decline significantly between 2001–2002 (n = 264) and 2007–2008 (n = 244). A decline was observed among children < 2 years old (185 [70.1%] to 134 [54.9%] cases; P = 0.0004), but was counterbalanced by an increase among children ≥ 2 years old (79 [29.9%] to 110 [45.1%] cases). Mean age increased significantly, from 2.3 (median 0.8) to 3.8 (median 1.5) years. After pneumococcal conjugate vaccine 7 implementation, a wide diversity of serotypes implicated in pneumococcalmeningitis was observed; serotypes 19A and 7F were the most frequent.