Objective  To examine vaccination status of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) and to evaluate the safety of PCV13 inoculation among children in Pudong New Area of Shanghai from 2017 to 2018 for providing evidences to implementing PCV13 vaccination in children.

  Methods  We collected two sets of data relevant to PCV13 vaccination among children in Pudong New Area of Shanghai during 2017 – 2018, including information on completed inoculations from Shanghai Planned Immunization Information System and on suspected adverse events following immunization (AEFI) registered in National Planned Immunization Information Management System. Descriptive epidemiology method was used in analyses on PCV13 vaccination coverage and incidence and spatial-temporal distribution of suspected AEFI.

  Results  During the period, totally 48 712 doses of PCV13 were vaccinated and 355 AEFI were registered, with a reported average annual AEFI incidence rate of 666.76/100 000 doses. Of all the reported AEFI, 99.44% (n = 353) were general reactions and only 0.56% (n = 2) were abnormal reaction. The reported incidence rate of AEFI differed significantly by gender (χ² = 4.575, P = 0.032) and dose order (χ² = 11.258, P = 0.010). Among all reported general reactions, 285 (80.74%) occurred during the day, 66 (18.70%) after 2 – 3 days, and 2 (0.56%) after 4 or more days of the PCV13 inoculations, respectively; while, one of the two abnormal reactions occurred during the day and the other after 2 – 3 days of the inoculations.

  Conclusion  The reported incidence of PCV13-related AEFI was significantly higher than the overall AEFI incidence among the children Pudong New Area of Shanghai during 2017 – 2018. The high incidence may be associated with the protein-binding characteristics of PCV13.