Pneumococcal infections are major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and it's estimated that about one and a half to two million people die from pneumococcal infections every year. But even though pneumococci can cause severe infections, they can be completely harmless, and they are commonly present in healthy children.
Birgitta Henriques Normark, Karolinska Insitutet, has dedicated her research life to infection research and the pneumococcal bacterium in particular. Together with her research team she is trying to develop a vaccine, a kind of bubble vaccine, which can knock out all pneumococcal bacteria, and it looks very promising for almost all variations of pneumococci.