Hospital Pushes Single-Shot Pneumococcal Vaccine as Deaths Mount in Reunion

Streptococcus pneumoniae kills tens of thousands of people each year, yet at the University Hospital of Reunion, medical teams watch daily as eligible patients leave without a vaccine that now requires only a single injection.

The hospital has launched a public health campaign to close that gap, targeting persistently low pneumococcal vaccination uptake across the territory. The drive comes despite a January 2025 decision by France’s Health Authority to broaden vaccination recommendations to all adults aged 65 and older, a policy shift explicitly designed to protect the population most vulnerable to severe respiratory infection. Simplified protocols and two newly recommended vaccines are already in place. The problem is that patients are not getting the shots.

The scale of the underlying disease burden makes the delivery shortfall harder to ignore. France records approximately 186,000 pneumococcal pneumonia cases annually. Infection burden rises sharply from age 50 onward and becomes especially severe after 65, when the risk of serious complications triples compared to younger adults. Adults aged 65 and older account for roughly 60 percent of invasive pneumococcal infections and three-quarters of hospitalizations for community-acquired acute pneumonia.

One finding complicates the assumption that only the chronically ill are at risk. Half of hospitalized patients aged 65 and older with community-acquired acute pneumonia have no underlying comorbidities. Age alone, in other words, is a substantial risk factor.

The updated French guidance also covers younger adults with specific conditions: chronic respiratory disease, heart failure, poorly controlled diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease, immunosuppression, or transplant history. Reunion carries a heavy burden of precisely these conditions, with large numbers of residents living with diabetes, kidney disease, respiratory illness, and cardiovascular disease, all of which amplify the consequences of pneumococcal infection.

What changed on the supply side is meaningful. Two vaccines now anchor the recommendations: Prevenar 20 and Capvaxive, a 21-valent formulation protecting against multiple pneumococcal strains. Both require only a single injection for eligible individuals, removing a compliance barrier that complicated earlier multi-dose regimens.

By contrast, the demand side has not moved. No precise vaccination coverage data exists for Reunion, making systematic assessment of the gap impossible. Frontline staff at the university hospital report that uptake remains far below adequate levels even among patients who clearly meet the criteria. The absence of reliable local figures means the hospital cannot quantify the problem it is trying to solve, only observe it.

The hospital’s response is to push awareness through every available channel. Officials are urging eligible residents to consult physicians, pharmacists, nurses, or midwives to determine whether vaccination applies to their situation. The vaccine, they emphasize, is a straightforward tool for preventing life-threatening infections and keeping patients out of hospital beds.

The campaign frames the problem honestly: clinical guidance has been updated, protocols have been simplified, and the vaccines are available. Whether the awareness drive translates into measurable increases in coverage, and how the hospital will track that progress without reliable baseline data, remains the open question.