Carriage rate and serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae amongst children in Thika Hospital, Kenya

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Rates of carriage are highest in infants and the elderly. The objectives of this study were to determine the rate of nasopharyngeal colonization by S. pneumoniae, and to describe the antibiotic resistant patterns and the serotypes of the carried isolates. A cross-sectional study design was used. Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from 315 children in the months of October and November 2010 and processed to isolate S. pneumoniae. The isolates were serotyped by the Quellung reaction and their antibiotic susceptibilities assessed by the disc diffusion method. The overall nasopharyngeal carriage rate for S. pneumoniae was 17%. Seventeen serotypes were detected amongst 55 strains analysed: 6A, 23F, 19F, 13, 6B, 14A, 20, 7C, 1, 15B, 35B, 19A, 11A, 34, 5, 3 and 23A. Susceptibility testing revealed that nearly all (98%) were resistant to cotrimoxazole, 9% were resistant to penicillin and 7% to cefotaxime. Resistance to chloramphenicol and erythromycin was 2% and 4%, respectively. All isolates were fully sensitive to tetracycline. High levels of cotrimoxazole resistance and some resistance to other antimicrobial agents commonly used in Thika District Hospital shows that there is need to revise antimicrobial policy in this region in the treatment of invasive pneumococcal infections. The frequent serotypes found in this study have previously been associated with pneumococcal infections in children. Several of these serotypes are included in the ten-valent vaccine and therefore use of this vaccine will help reduce pneumococcal infections in Thika.