Infection with Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria can cause serious illness and death. Invasive pneumococcal disease is responsible for about 200 deaths each year among children under 5 years old. It is the leading cause of bacterial meningitis in the United States. (Meningitis is an infection of the covering of the brain).

Each year pneumococcal infection causes severe disease in children under five years old:

• Over 700 cases of meningitis
  
• 13,000 blood infections
  
• About 5 million ear infections
  

It can also lead to other health problems, including:

• Pneumonia
  
• Deafness
  
• Brain damage
  

Children under 2 years old are at highest risk for serious disease.

Pneumococcus bacteria are spread from person to person through lose contact.

Pneumococcal infections can be hard to treat because the bacteria have become resistant to some of the drugs that have been used to treat them. This makes prevention of pneumococcal infections even more important.

Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine can help prevent serious pneumococcal disease, such as meningitis and blood infections. It can also prevent some ear infections. But ear infections have many causes, and pneumococcal vaccine is effective against only some of them.