Pneumococcal Meningitis Vaccine Breakthroughs and Failures After Routine 7-Valent and 13-Valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccination in Children in France.

We collected cases of pneumococcal meningitis vaccine breakthrough (VBT) and vaccine failure (VF) from 2003 to 2013 after the implementation of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) in France. VBT accounted for 3.2% of the cases (PCV7 era: 24 of 943, PCV13 era: 15 of 290) and VF 0.6% (PCV7 era: 6 of 943, PCV13 era: 2 of 290). VBT and VF are rare and occur in most cases in children younger than 2 years. The serotype 19F was the most frequent cause even after the introduction of PCV13.