What Prevenar 13 is
used for
Prevenar 13 is a vaccine, which is a
type of medicine that helps to protect
(immunise) people from certain
infectious diseases. It does this by
preparing the body's defences to fight
the infection, before you catch the
bacteria or virus.
Prevenar 13 is usually recommended
for use in babies and children from 6
weeks to 17 years of age, or in adults
50 year and older. Prevenar 13 is a
mixture of the outer sugar coating
(polysaccharide) from 13 different
strains or serotypes of bacteria called
Streptococcus pneumoniae. Each
serotype is joined to a non-toxic
protein to make it work more
effectively. Streptococcus
pneumoniae bacteria are one of the
causes of meningitis (a serious brain
infection that could cause death
or brain damage)
• bacteraemia (infection of the
blood)
• pneumonia
• otitis media (an ear infection that
can cause pain and temporary
hearing loss and may require you
or your child to have an ear
operation).
Prevenar 13 can protect against 13 of
the strains of Streptococcus
pneumoniae that can cause these
diseases. Prevenar 13 does not
replace the need for vaccination with
Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)
or meningococcal vaccines that
protect against other important
causes of meningitis.
You cannot catch any of the above
diseases from the vaccine itself,
because it is not made with live or
whole bacteria.
As with all vaccines, 100%
protection against the above diseases
cannot be guaranteed.