New Zealand introduced pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV)7 in June 2008, PCV10 in 2011, and PCV13 in 2014. In order to evaluate the impact of the PCV vaccination programme on hospitalisations for infectious disease, these researchers collated and analysed annual hospital admissions for invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD), all-cause pneumonia, and all-cause otitis media (OM) for New Zealand children aged <6 years between 2006 and 2015 by age group, ethnicity, geographical area, and socioeconomic deprivation. During the 10-year study period, 640 children were hospitalised for IPD, 26,589 for all-cause pneumonia and 44,545 for OM; hospitalisations for each disease fell by 73%, 8% and 25%, respectively, between 2006 and 2015. Although the hospitalisation rates for all diseases were highest among Māori and Pacific children, the rates fell by a greater extent among these children as compared with declines in hospitalisations among other ethnic groups. Similarly, the declines in hospitalisations fell disproportionately among children from areas of higher socioeconomic deprivation compared with those from less socioeconomically deprived areas.
