ABSTRACT
Humans have been struggling for two centuries to reduce the health and economic burden caused by pneumococcal infection. Invasive pneumococcal disease （IPD）， meningitis， and acute otitis media caused by pneumococcus occur worldwide， especially in infants， children and elderly. Pneumococcus is resistant to most antibiotics and vaccines remain the most effective measure against the pneumococcal epidemic. The development of the pneumococcal vaccine was initiated at the beginning of 21 century. In 2014， incidence and mortality of pneumococcal pneumonia and IPD induced by vaccine serotypes decreased accordingly after the introduction of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine （PCV）. Subsequently， the new challenge is to further improve the low response of some existing vaccine serotypes， include more serotypes in the PCV， and research on the application of PCV in specific populations. This review briefly describes the development of PCV.