Hirst, Ceri, Owusu-Ofori, Shirley

This is an update of a Cochrane Review first published in 2002, and previously updated in 2012. People with sickle cell disease are particularly susceptible to infection. Infants and very young children are especially vulnerable, and the 'Co-operative Study of Sickle Cell Disease' observed an incidence rate of 10 per 100 patient years of pneumococcal septicaemia in children under the age of three. Vaccines, including customary pneumococcal vaccines, may be of limited use in this age group. Therefore, prophylactic penicillin regimens may be advisable for this population.