BACKGROUND: An important development in the field of adult pneumococcal vaccination since the last Consensus Statement, published by the Expert Panel of Central and Eastern Europe and Israel (the Region) in September 2012, was the licensure of the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) for adults aged 50 years and older. DISCUSSION: The Expert Panel has developed this Position Statement as an update to its previous Consensus to address the following topics which are likely to be on the agenda of national scientific societies during the ongoing updates of vaccination recommendations in the Region: the availability of a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for adults over 50 years of age, the available clinical evidence on its use in adults, and the future place of conjugate vaccines in adult pneumococcal vaccination. The Expert Panel concluded that there is sufficient epidemiologic immunogenicity and safety evidence to use PCV 13 in adults over 50 years of age. RESULTS: The use of conjugate vaccine induces immunological memory and can overcome some limitations associated with the plain polysaccharide vaccine (PPV). It was also agreed that, if the use of PPV is considered appropriate, PCV13 should be administered first, regardless of prior pneumococcal vaccination status.

Carol Davila University of Medicine Bucharest and Marius Nasta Institute of Pneumophthisiology Bucharest Romania

Department of Chest Diseases Ege University Medical Faculty Izmir Turkey

Department of Epidemiology Faculty of Military Health Sciences University of Defence Hradec Kralove Czech Republic

Division of Infectious Diseases Department of Internal Medicine No 2 Semmelweis Medical University Budapest Hungary

Institute of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Smolensk State Medical Academy Smolensk Russia

lnfectious Disease Unit Sheba Medical Centre Tel Hashomer Ramat Gan Israel

National Institute of Child Health Szent Laszlo Hospital for Infectious Diseases Budapest Hungary

National Reference Centre for Bacterial Meningitis Department of Epidemiology and Clinical Microbiology National Medicines Institute Warsaw Poland

Pulmonology and Phthisiatry Clinic University Hospital Pleven Bulgaria

Pulmonology Department of National Institute for TB Lung Diseases and Thoracic Surgery VySné Hágy Catholic University Ruzomberok Slovakia

Research Center of Medical Studies Institute for Clinical Pharmacology Charité University Medicine of Berlin Berlin Germany

Section of Infectious Diseases Department of Internal Medicine Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine Ankara Turkey

University Hospital Hradec Králové Czech Republic

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