Introduction:

Globally, 99% of pneumonia deaths are children under 5 years old. The World Health Organization recommends the inclusion of pneumococcal vaccines in internationally expanded childhood immunization programs to reduce annual deaths in this age group.

Objective:

To evaluate the impact of pneumococcal vaccine on the incidence and hospitalization of children under 5 years of age with community-acquired pneumonia.

Methods:

Systematic review of various scientific publications related to the subject. The search sources were PubMed, SciELO and Google Scholar. The key words were: "children", "pneumococcal vaccine" in combination with "community-acquired pneumonia" or "child", "pneumococcal vaccines" and "pneumonia, bacterial". Analytical articles published from January 1, 2017 to October 6, 2021 were selected. Articles that do not include an author or Digital Object Identifier System or refer to hospital or nosocomial pneumonias were excluded.

Analysis and synthesis of information:

Of the 136 articles found, 125 were discarded for not meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 4 articles remained for the theoretical basis and 7 articles for this review. Pneumococcal vaccine PCV 13 was found to decrease incidence by up to 22% and hospitalization rates by 35%.

Conclusion:

Vaccination is a very effective health strategy to reduce this kind of diseases, which are preventable through immunization.

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