Objective: To report the percentage of non-vaccine pneumococcal serotypes and their antibiotic susceptibility pattern in children with invasive peumococcal disease.
Methods: Invasive pneumococcal isolates of children <5 years during January 2007 to December 2016 were serotyped by a co-agglutination reaction and sequential multiplex polymerase chain reaction.
Results: Among the total 170 S. pneumoniae invasive isolates, 54 (31.8%) and 44 (25.9%) were the serotypes, which are not included in current 10-valent or 13-valent vaccines, respectively. Very low resistance was observed against penicillin (4.5%) and all isolates were susceptible to cefotaxime.
Conclusions: One-fourth to one-third of the S. pneumoniae serotypes in under-five children with invasive pneumococcal disease are not covered by existing pneumococcal vaccines in India.