[대한경제=김호윤 기자] A pneumococcal vaccine is a drug that prevents infection by pneumococcal bacteria by using the body’s immune response. Antibodies are produced in the human body using the antigens of pneumococcal bacteria, and the antibodies protect against the pneumococcal infection through an immune response that removes the antigens.
The pneumococcal vaccine is a killed vaccine in which some of the pathogens are inactivated. Because it is not alive, it cannot multiply in the body and is relatively safe because it does not cause infection until age when given to immunocompromised people.
Pneumococcal vaccines are divided into polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV) and protein conjugate vaccine (PCV). A polysaccharide vaccine is a vaccine that uses polysaccharide, which is the main component of the pneumococcal cell wall, as an antigen, and a protein conjugate vaccine is a vaccine that uses a polysaccharide antigen and a protein carrier to compensate for the difficulty in forming antibodies against antigens polysaccharide in children under 2 years of age It is a vaccine developed by combining
There are more than 90 types of pneumococcal antigens, and it is difficult to isolate each antigen, so vaccines are produced using 23 antigens that cause infections. Polysaccharide vaccines contain 23 antigens, and protein conjugate vaccines contain 10 to 13 antigens.
Children under 2 years of age should be vaccinated with a combined protein vaccine, and adults should choose according to the situation. There is a method of vaccinating 23 vaccines once, or vaccinating 13 and 23 vaccines once each in a row, with an interval of several months or more than a year. In addition, additional vaccination is recommended for those at high risk of infection due to particularly chronic diseases or reduced immunity.
If pneumococcal vaccine is vaccinated, patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease can expect a preventive effect of 65 to 84%. In addition, there are studies that show that patients who have been vaccinated against pneumococcal pneumonia have a 40% reduction in death or hospitalization in an intensive care unit compared to patients who have not been vaccinated.
There are side effects, but nothing to worry about. Severe allergy rarely occurs after pneumococcal vaccination, but is a temporary reaction that resolves after a few days. In addition, swelling at the injection site, redness (a phenomenon where the skin and mucous membranes become red due to capillary congestion), and pain are also local symptoms. Symptoms of local side effects are higher for polysaccharide vaccines than for conjugated protein vaccines, and increase as the number of vaccinations increases.
In addition, when the conjugated protein vaccine and the DTP vaccine are administered at the same time, the side effect of high fever may appear, which is known to be due to the DTP vaccination.
Reporter Kim Ho-yoon khy2751@
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