Pneumococcal vaccination is a challenge of pediatric allergists in COVID-19 pandemic

world allergy congress 2022, istanbul, İstanbul, Türkiye, 13 Ekim 2022

Background And Objective: Increased risk of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) was reported in children with

asthma before introduction of pneumococcal vaccines (PV), however the evidence is limited after PV entered

routine immunization schedule. We aimed to investigate whether pediatric allergists (PA) recommend additional

PV (aPV) to asthmatic children and if so are there any asthma specific risk factors they consider. We also wanted

to determine any changes in their recommendations during COVID-19 pandemic.

Materials-Methods: An online filled questionnaire consisting of 14 questions (demographic:5, IPD and asthma:

2, aPV:3, COVID-19: 4) was e-mailed to all members of Academy of Pediatric Allergy and Asthma in Türkiye.

Results: The questionnaire was e-mailed to 220 members. The response rate was 56.3% and 60.5% of PA

recommended aPV. The most frequent asthma specific factors for aPV were severe asthma (70.2%), long term oral

corticosteroid use (65.3%) and frequent exacerbations / hospitalizations (62.9%). COVID-19 pandemic increased

the rate of questions asked to PA about aPV for asthmatic children compared to previous periods (75.8 vs 33.9%)

(p<0.001) and %27 of PA changed their recommendations in favor of aPV during pandemic.

Conclusions: Recommendation of aPV by PA for asthmatic children is not infrequent. Severe asthma and related

factors seem to be the leading reasons to recommend aPV for asthmatic children. The aPV recommendation by

PA is increased during COVID-19 pandemic