BACKGROUND In Uganda, the main causes of death in children under 5 years of age are malaria and pneumonia--often due to delayed diagnosis and treatment. In preparation for a community case management intervention for pneumonia and malaria, the bacterial composition of the nasopharyngeal flora and its in vitro resistance were determined in children aged five or under to establish baseline resist...

During periods of endemic disease, about 10 % of the general population harbour Neisseria meningitidis in the nasopharynx. Since N. meningitidis is a strict human pathogen and most patients have not been in contact with other cases, asymptomatic carriers are presumably the major source of the pathogenic strains. Most carrier isolates are shown to lack capsule production. The capsule deficient s...

OBJECTIVE Despite CD4(+) count restoration and viral load suppression with antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV-infected children remain at increased risk of life-threatening infections including invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). We therefore investigated whether persistent susceptibility to IPD following ART is associated with incomplete recovery of B-cell function. METHODS 41 HIV-infected M...

The serotype distribution of 781 nasopharyngeal pneumococcal isolates recovered from 2448 unselected children aged 2-23 months was studied. Only 3.9% of the children for whom cultures were performed attended day care centers. The proportions of pneumococcal isolates that belonged to serotypes related to the 7-, 9- and 11-valent conjugate pneumococcal vaccine were 65%, 66%, and 70%, respectively...

The prevalence of Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) carriage is higher in adults who are infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) than in adults who are not. We hypothesized that infants exposed to HIV become carriers of nasopharyngeal pneumococcus earlier and more frequently than infants who are not exposed to HIV. We compared infant pneumococcal acquisition by maternal HIV statu...

Colonization with Streptococcus pneumoniae is mostly symptomless, but can progress to respiratory or even systemic disease. We investigated nasopharyngeal carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae in healthy children under five years of age in Central Lombok Regency, Indonesia. This cross sectional study was carried out in 2012 among 1,200 healthy children aged 2 to 60 months. A multiplex sequential...

Local antibodies probably contribute to defense against Streptococcus pneumoniae. This study examined whether pneumococcal carriage and acute otitis media (AOM) induce mucosal antibodies to potential vaccine candidates pneumococcal surface adhesin A (PsaA), pneumolysin (Ply), and pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA). IgA to all 3 proteins was detected by EIA in saliva of 329 children at ages 6...

Background: Mixed-species otitis media caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn) and nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is associated with complex manifestations that are less common in pneumococcal infections without NTHi. We analyzed the microbiological composition of middle ear fluid (MEF) cultures and nasopharyngeal samples obtained before PCV7/13 rollout to identify bacterial factors...

Regulatory T cells (Treg) diminish immune responses to microbial infection, which may contribute to preventing inflammation-related local tissue damage and autoimmunity but may also contribute to chronicity of infection. Nasopharyngeal carriage of pneumococcus is common in young children and can persist for long periods but it is unknown whether the presence of Treg in the nasopharynx contribut...

Nasopharyngeal swabbing substantially underestimates carriage of Neisseria meningitidis. Real-time PCR assays were employed to examine the presence of a broad range of bacteria and of N. meningitidis groups B and C, respectively, in tonsils from 26 individuals from Oxford, England, and 72 individuals from Zurich, Switzerland. The detection limit of each PCR system was DNA from one bacterial cel...