Pneumococcal disease: Rome's Omceo calls for the introduction of the 20-valent vaccine.

The 20-valent pneumococcal vaccine is the latest frontier in the fight against the bacterium, capable of targeting 20 pneumococcal variants . Compared to the 15-valent vaccine currently in use, it represents an additional weapon available to doctors and patients.

" Streptococcus pneumoniae infections represent a significant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and the development of pneumococcal vaccines with increasingly greater serotype coverage represents an important resource for combating the disease ," underlined Valentina Grimaldi , family pediatrician, psychotherapist, and councilor of the Order of Physicians-Surgeons and Dentists of the province of Rome (Omceo Roma).

" The epidemiological surveillance data, both national and regional, despite the possible limitations of underdiagnosis, underreporting and subtyping ", continued Grimaldi , " highlight an increase in the number of cases of pneumococcal disease also due to the serotypes present exclusively in the 20-valent vaccine ".

This is why Omceo Roma , trade organizations, scientific societies and the Italian Society of Pediatrics/Lazio are asking the Lazio Region to introduce the 20-valent vaccine into the vaccination schedule, replacing the current 15-valent vaccine, and urging its adoption among newborns.

" We must never forget ," Grimaldi emphasized, " that just as preventing influenza with the flu vaccine, preventing pneumococcal disease with the vaccine also represents an important tool in combating antibiotic resistance, which is increasingly becoming an emergency that must be addressed. Therefore, promoting the 20-valent pneumococcal vaccination seems like a necessary step that leaves no room for personal or discretionary choices, but requires specific behavior ."