Hospitalization for Invasive Pneumococcal Diseases in Young Children before Use of 13-Valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine, Suzhou, China

A 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine against invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) was introduced in China in April 2017. We describe 105 children <5 years of age who were hospitalized for IPD at Soochow University Affiliated Children’s Hospital in Suzhou, China, during January 2010–December 2017. We calculated the incidence of hospitalization for IPD as 14.55/100,000 children in Suzhou. We identified 8 different capsular serotypes: 6B (28.4% of cases), 14 (18.9% of cases), 19A (18.9% of cases), 19F (12.2% of cases), 23F (10.8% of cases), 20 (4.1% of cases), 9V (4.1% of cases), and 15B/C (2.7% of cases). These results provide baseline data of IPD before the introduction of this vaccine in China, enabling researchers to better understand its effects on IPD incidence.