May 22, 2023
In a new article co-authored by One Health Trust President Ramanan Laxminarayan, the impact of vaccinating pregnant women against Klebsiella pneumoniae, the leading cause of neonatal sepsis infections and deaths, was quantified. Using a Bayesian modeling framework, the researchers measured the ability of a hypothetical maternal K. pneumoniae vaccine with 70 percent efficacy to reduce neonatal mortality and rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). They found that a K. pneumoniae maternal vaccine could significantly enhance child well-being, reduce neonatal deaths and sepsis infections in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) by 15 percent, and lower the number of antibiotic-resistant K. pneumoniae infections. Future work, including cost-effectiveness analyses, will help further bolster the case for developing a maternal vaccine against K. pneumoniae, particularly as rates of AMR are predicted to rise.
Read the full article, published in PLOS Medicine, here.
