Federal regulators have approved a vaccine for adults age 50 and older to prevent pneumococcal disease, including the most common type of pneumonia.

Friday�s announcement from the Food and Drug Administration that it has approved Pfizer Inc.�s best-selling Prevnar 13 vaccine for such use was widely anticipated. It comes a little more than a month after a panel of federal health experts voted overwhelmingly to recommend Prevnar 13 as a safe and effective vaccine to prevent the bacterial infections in adults.

Prevnar 13 protects against 13 strains of pneumococcal bacteria, which cause meningitis, pneumonia and ear infections.

It�s already a standard vaccination for infants and young children, who are most vulnerable to infection.

But the FDA said 300,000 adults 50 or older are hospitalized every year for pneumococcal pneumonia.

�The FDA approval of Prevnar 13 for these adults offers the potential to contribute to the health of millions of aging Americans,� Ian Read, Pfizer�s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

Some 5,000 older adults succumb to the disease annually, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

(Source: Washington Times)