Grant: Project Grant

Pneumonia is the leading cause of child deaths globally. Most deaths occur in low-resource settings in Asia and Africa. Uganda is a model country for studying childhood pneumonia because of the large number of cases and deaths, with the potential to intervene to save lives. One of the leading bacterial causes of pneumonia is named pneumococcus. There is an effective vaccine against pneumococcus but its benefits and uptake in Uganda is not known. We recently completed a large trial in Uganda, with over 2000 children at 20 hospitals across the country. We collected detailed clinical information and samples (nose swabs, blood) that provide a rich database and biobank which we can use to study our research question. Our long-term goal is to reduce preventable pneumonia deaths by improving the prevention, identification, and management of pneumonia in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). We will look at a comprehensive panel of patient and bacterial factors that may influence the outcome of pneumonia illness. We will look at whether patients in our cohort had pneumococcus in the upper airway (nose) and in the blood and which strains. We will look at patient immunity, whether they previously were vaccinated against pneumococcus, whether they have antibodies in their blood, and their level of inflammation. Our clinical and research team has been active in Uganda since 2011. We have frontline experience in the clinical care of children with pneumonia. Our core expertise includes local medical leadership and scientific experts in pediatric infectious disease and global health. The proposed work will provide valuable public health data on the uptake and benefit of the pneumococcal vaccine in Ugandan children. We expect our findings will be of great interest to the global health community, documenting gaps in vaccine coverage and benefits of vaccination in a low-income setting.