Possibilities of preventing otitis media by vaccination.

The prerequisites for preventing a considerable proportion of acute otitis media (AOME) of children are theoretically good--pneumococcal types/groups present in the available 14-valent pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide vaccine are the most common bacteria in AOME, and a good serum antibody response is followed by type-specific protection from infection. However, the four most common types/groups (= 2/3 of all pneumococci in AOME) have very poor immunizing capacity in infants, and therefore the vaccine offers little protection from AOME for children under the age of 2 years. This information should help towards an improved new vaccine for AOME.