While you’ve probably heard of pneumonia, you may be less familiar with the term pneumococcal disease. Pneumonia is one kind of pneumococcal disease. Pneumococcal diseases are infections you may get when you’re infected with Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria, also called pneumococcus. Pneumococcus can cause a wide range of illnesses from ear and sinus infections to pneumonia, bloodstream infections, and meningitis.
During a recent WebMD Reddit AMA with William Schaffner, MD, professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, participants asked questions about pneumococcal disease to learn more about what it is, how it spreads, and how to protect yourself from it.
Schaffner explores these topics in more detail below.
How Do You Get Pneumococcal Disease?
Although pneumococcal disease can cause some of the most serious types of bacterial infections, it may also be in your body without causing any symptoms.
"You can be a carrier for these bacteria," says Schaffner. "They can live back in the nose and throat and not cause any disease."
The bacteria can pass from person to person through close contact with fluid droplets from coughs and sneezes. Because people may not know they have — and are spreading — the bacteria, says Schaffner, pneumococcal disease can be difficult to control.
"Children are especially recognized as the great spreaders or distributors of these pneumococcal germs," he says. Children often spread the bacteria to one another and can also bring it home to parents, grandparents, and other family members.
Pneumococcal infections tend to be more common during the winter and early spring, when many respiratory viruses are circulating. But unlike other types of viruses like flu, RSV, or COVID-19, pneumococcal disease doesn’t typically come in waves, or outbreaks, in the population.
“If people are in confined circumstances, such as jails, nursing homes, or daycares, you can have that sort of transmission from person to person, but these are pretty rare,” says Schaffner.
However, public health officials do still watch trends in pneumococcal disease. CDC tracks invasive pneumococcal disease through two surveillance systems: the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System and Active Bacterial Core surveillance (ABCs), a network that works with state health departments to monitor serious infections such as meningitis and bloodstream infections. Public health experts use these systems to track changes in bacterial strains and measure the impact of prevention efforts.
How Can Pneumococcal Disease Affect You?
The most common pneumococcal infections don't involve your major organs and cause less serious side effects. These types of infections are called non-invasive pneumococcal disease and include ear infections, sinus infections, and mild pneumonia.
But sometimes the bacteria get into your bloodstream and go to other parts of your body where they cause more serious illness. This is invasive pneumococcal disease, and some of these infections can be life-threatening.
“These pneumococcal germs can cause pericarditis, an infection in the membranes that surround the heart, for example, or an infection in the brain and spinal cord, a very serious form of meningitis,” says Schaffner. “Despite the fact that we have good antibiotic treatments, those invasive infections still carry a high fatality rate. For example, bloodstream infection can carry a fatality rate of anywhere from 10% to 15%, depending upon the population that you're studying.”
What’s important to know, says Schaffner, is that there are several effective ways to reduce your risk of pneumococcal disease, including vaccination, healthy habits, and paying attention to chronic health conditions that can make an infection more likely.
Know Your Risk
Anyone can get pneumococcal disease, but certain factors put you at higher risk of severe illness. Age plays a big role in your risk. Being under 5 or over 50 makes you more vulnerable to the bacteria because your immune system either isn’t fully matured yet or has become less effective with age.
Certain health conditions can also make it easier for pneumococcal bacteria to cause infection in your body. These include chronic heart disease, chronic lung disease (including asthma), diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease, and conditions (or treatments) that weaken your immune system, such as cancer. Having cochlear implants raises your risk, as does being a smoker.
Schaffner says researchers don’t know exactly why specific health conditions increase risk. In people with asthma, however, inflammation and difficulty clearing mucus may play a part.
“It may well be that the pneumococci that normally live back in the throat periodically get down into our bronchial tubes,” says Schaffner. “And I would think that people with asthma have less ability to eject those pneumococci, to get them out. And if they stay down in the bronchial tubes, they can get out into the lungs and cause pneumonia.”
Heart disease may increase your risk for different reasons. Fluid buildup and changes in your lung function can create conditions that make infection more likely.
“We know that people with heart disease have a predisposition to infections,” says Schaffner. “Since they accumulate more fluid, making their lungs a little ‘wetter’ in a sense, that provides an environment for pneumococci to be able to get out into the lungs and cause pneumonia.”
Vaccination Is the Best Prevention
Getting a pneumococcal vaccine is the most important way to prevent serious pneumococcal disease. Pediatricians offer the four-round vaccine course to kids starting at 2 months old. Doctors recommend children start the shot course before age 5.
If you didn’t get the vaccination as a child, doctors recommend you get it at age 50. You may qualify to get it at a younger age if you have certain risk factors.
“If you're 19 through 49 and you have any one of the chronic medical conditions that raise your risk of pneumococcal disease, you qualify for the vaccine,” says Schaffner.
Alongside vaccination, other hygiene practices help keep pneumococcal disease from entering your body. Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, avoid close contact with people who are sick, get enough sleep, and stay hydrated. And if you’re in a higher risk category, Schaffner recommends extra protection, especially during winter months.
“Since people can spread these bugs person to person, if you go to the supermarket, a religious service, basketball game, or anything indoors where there are a lot of people, wear your mask,” he says.
Show Sources
Photo Credit: E+/Getty Images
SOURCES:
William Schaffner, MD, professor, preventive medicine, professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
Cleveland Clinic: “Pneumococcal Disease,” “Handwashing.”
CDC: “Pneumococcal Disease Surveillance and Trends,” “Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases: Pneumococcal Disease,” “Pneumococcal Disease in Adults and Vaccines to Prevent It,” “Pneumococcal Vaccine Recommendations.”
