Methods for estimating the direct and indirect effect of 10 valent pneumococcal vaccine on nasopharyngeal carriage in children under 2 years in Matiari, Pakistan

ABSTRACT Pneumonia is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children worldwide. The ten valent pneumococcal vaccine (PCV10) was introduced in Pakistan's Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) in 2012 as a 3+0 schedule without catchup immunization. Nasopharyngeal carriage is taken as a surrogate marker to measure the impact of pneumococcal vaccine on populations. Carriage surveys are necessary to monitor the persistence of Vaccine Type (VT) serotypes, the emergence of Non-Vaccine Type (NVT) serotypes, and their role in both transmission and disease. This article describes various troubleshooting measures which we undertook to adopt the protocol to our setting. We also used an innovative approach to describe various epidemiological parameters of vaccine effectiveness against carriage. It is important to publish these methods to allow for valid regional and temporal comparisons of results in different settings. Thus, in this article, we describe the following methods for isolating upper airway pneumococcal carriage: • Methods for the collection, transport, and storage of nasopharyngeal samples. • Methods for identification and serotyping of pneumococci. • Methods for estimation of the direct and indirect effects of pneumococcal vaccines on nasopharyngeal carriage.