Immunizing children with Prevnar to guard against life-threatening meningitis, pneumonia and blood infections can also protect adults who have not been vaccinated, a new study shows. The vaccine, made by U.S. drug company Wyeth, is recommended for children under the age of 2 and in 2004 alone, it prevented 13,000 infections, said Cynthia Whitney, chief of the respiratory disease branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, who helped write the study. (April 6 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine)
