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# PCV20 lowered pneumococcal pneumonia admissions by a fifth in US adults aged 65 and over
- URL: https://www.coios.me/pcv20-lowered-pneumococcal-pneumonia-admissions-by-a-fifth/
- Published: 2026-09-16T21:04:28.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-16T21:04:28.000Z
- Description: In 34,009 US Veterans Affairs pneumonia hospitalisations with respiratory cultures taken between 2023 and 2025, the 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine was associated with 20.4% lower odds of culture-confirmed pneumococcal pneumonia among adults aged 65 and over.
- Author: Daniel Ryan
- Tags: Healthcare today, Infectious disease and pandemics, United States, #preprint, #new, #item, #source-2026-09

A test-negative case-control study used 34,009 adult pneumonia hospitalisations in the US Veterans Affairs system from January 2023 to December 2025, of which 837 (2.5%) were culture-positive for Streptococcus pneumoniae and 21.8% of patients had received PCV20\. Estimated effectiveness against culture-confirmed pneumococcal pneumonia hospitalisation was 20.4% (95% CI 2.1–35.3) at ages 65 and over and 8.8% (95% CI −8.8 to 23.6) across all adults, with the highest estimate in the Western region (39.6%). Results were consistent under inverse probability weighting.

*Why it is interesting: One of the first real-world effectiveness estimates for PCV20 against pneumococcal pneumonia admissions, and the point estimates are modest and regionally uneven.*

Source

[medRxiv, 2026-09-14](https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.09.13.26362937?ref=coios.me)

DOI

10.64898/2026.09.13.26362937

Type

Preprint

Design

Test-negative case-control, 34,009 pneumonia hospitalisations with respiratory cultures, US Veterans Affairs, Jan 2023–Dec 2025

Verdict

New finding

Driver

[Infectious disease and pandemics](https://www.coios.me/d-infectious-disease/)