Invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) presents a significant public health concern globally. India leads the way with the highest number of diagnosed incident cases of IPD, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

The company’s latest report ‘Pneumococcal Vaccines: Epidemiology Forecast in Asia-Pacific Markets to 2028’, reveals that there were more than two million diagnosed incident cases of IPD in the five growth markets (5GM: Australia, India, Japan, South Korea and Urban China), and India accounted for more than 98% of these cases.

The high number of cases in India is a direct result of the lack of country-wide vaccination for pneumococcal disease. Vaccination for pneumococcal disease was only introduced in children in late 2017 across three Indian states, and vaccination in the elderly is not a part of the national immunization program.

Topias Lemetyinen, Managing Epidemiologist at GlobalData, comments: “These two high-risk groups for IPD have been left mostly unprotected, which has contributed to the high number of cases in India.

“With the introduction of childhood immunization for pneumococcal disease in 2017 for certain regions of India, the trend is shifting and cases are expected to start declining.”