Did introduction of pneumococcal vaccines in the Netherlands decrease the need for respiratory antibiotics in children? Analysis of 2002 to 2013 data

To estimate the effect of the introduction of the 7- and 10-valentpneumococcal vaccines in 2006 and 2011, respectively in the Netherlands, we assessed respiratory antibiotic use in one to nine year-old children between 2002 and 2013. Seasonal autoregressive integrated moving-average models were applied to estimate the percentage reduction in respiratory antibiotic use. When compared with the pre-vaccination period, the proportion of respiratory antibiotic prescriptions fell by 4.94% (95% CI: 4.63 to 5.26) and 9.02% (95% CI: 2.83 to 14.82) after the introduction of the 7-valent vaccine in children aged three and four years, respectively. After the introduction of the 10-valent vaccine, we observed a reduction of 13.04% (95% CI: 2.76 to 22.23), 20.31% (95% CI: 13.50 to 26.58), 16.92% (95% CI: 3.07 to 28.80), 22.34% (95% CI: 3.73 to 37.35), 23.75% (95% CI: 2.37 to 40.44) in two, three, four, six and seven year-old children, respectively. Thus, our results indicate a reduction in respiratory antibiotic prescriptions in young children after introduction of the pneumococcal vaccines. As only children in our study population aged one and two years born after March 2011 had received the 10-valent vaccine, the effects of the 10-valent vaccine in children aged three to nine years likely reflect the effects of the 7-valent vaccine and herd immunity.