L'anziano fragile : perché vaccinare contro lo Pneumococco?

Streptococcus Pneumoniae is the main etiological agent of pneumonia and causes various other pathologies, e.g. meningitis and otitis, following to the uncontrolled replication in the human organism. The problem of treating the infection is tied to aspects that involve, on the one side the micro organism, that often develops resistance to the antibiotic, and on the other the stricken subjects that, often elderly or with pre-existing pathological conditions, don't succeed in fighting the infection with their own immune system. With the purpose to obviate to these problems and contemporarily checking the sanitary expense, a preventive practice from the long history but from the alternate fortunes, the pneumococcal vaccination, has spread more and more and recommended. In our article we would like to describe the motivations that induce us to hold the pneumococcal vaccination a usefull resource in the current socioeconomic picture for the western physician. © Pio Albergo Trivulzio.