Activities

• We conducted a clinical epidemiological study of adult pneumococcal pneumonia in 27 commuinty hospitals in Japan. The purpose of this study is to determine the serotype distribution of pneumococcal pneumonia and epidemiological characteristics of each serotype, and to recommend vaccine policies of pneumococcal vaccine for older people.
  Using the latest serotype distribution obtained from pneumococcal pneumonia surveillance, we are conducting a cost-effectiveness analysis of pneumococcal vaccines in the older people in collaboration with Yokohama City University. We are also conducting a study to evaluate quality of life and burden of care, which is one of the issues in the study of cost-effectiveness of vaccines for older people.
• Studies of upper respiratory tract carriage of streptococcus pneumoniae in the elderly are being conducted among community dwelling older people and residents of long-term care facilities. We are also developing updated suitable multi-plex PCR for carriage study of elderly patients with low bacterial load and carriage rates.
• We have conducted mainly two types of study on the COVID-19. First, epidemiological characteristics were clarified through cluster analysis, and a cluster analysis of nursing homes for the older peopla in Nagasaki City was conducted. Regarding the COVID-19 vaccines, we have been investigating the vaccine effectiveness in preventing symptomatic disease since July 2021, and have reported the results of the analyses four times, providing them as reference data for the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.