Streptococcus pneumoniae can be a killer for young children, older adults and people with compromised immune systems. The good news: It’s been studied widely and there’s a vaccine.

The bad news: There are 95 capsular serotype variants of the bacterium, and the main vaccine, PCV 15, covers only the top 15.

Not only that, but of the 25,000 pneumococcal samples studied by the Global Pneumococcal Sequencing Project, none originated in the Middle East. That means there was little evidence about whether the leading vaccine is effective against the strains endemic to the area.

To investigate, Dean Everett, professor of infectious diseases in the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology at Khalifa University, developed a first-of-its-kind study with Abiola Senok, of Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences. They recently published that study, which looked at bacteria isolated in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology.

“Pneumococcal disease is one of the biggest killers in the world for under-5s,” Everett says. “So it’s really important that we do this sort of work so we understand the epidemiology of the bug, so we can target with vaccines that are appropriate for the population which resides in this region.”

The study also found that strains vary even in the region.

“What’s circulating in Kuwait is completely different to what’s going around in the UAE,” he adds.

“It shows that we need to do things like surveillance and genetic epidemiology, particularly in order to understand what’s going on here, rather than just taking a one-size-fits-all vaccine approach. And there’s no disrespect to what we do. It’s just that we don’t have the information. If we have the information, we can make better decisions on what vaccines to give to our children.”

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