Effect of maternal Pneumococcal vaccination on early life

A bacteria (or germ) called pneumococcus, which causes pneumonia, meningitis and blood stream infections, is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths as well as a tremendous burden of serious disease in babies and children each year. Children are already vaccinated against the infection at around 2, 3 and 4 months of age but this leaves them susceptible to infection in very early life, as soon as they are borne. In settings such as The Gambia, pneumococcus 'colonizes' the back of the nose (it lives there without causing disease in most cases) at very high level over these first few months.
This trial aims to find out whether giving mothers the vaccine against pneumococcus in the third trimester of pregnancy may allow them to pass protection (antibodies) to the newborn. Also whether vaccinating a baby as soon as they are born may protect them in a similar way.
If either of these approaches are successful this might provide important decision makers, such as the World Health Organisation, with new ways to prevent disease and serious infections in newborn babies.