Background. Bacterial pneumonia and otitis media often follow influenza and other upper respiratory viral infections. Streptococcus pneumoniae (SP) is one of the most frequent culprits. While animal models suggest influenza enhances SP transmission and growth and that SP may increase influenza morbidity, there is limited evidence in human populations. We estimated the prevalence of SP among adu...

Although virulence of Streptococcus pneumoniae is associated with its capsule, some pathogenic S. pneumoniae isolates lack capsules and are serologically nontypeable (NT). We obtained 64 isolates that were identified as NT "pneumococci" (i.e., bacteria satisfying the conventional definition but without the multilocus sequence typing [MLST]-based definition of S. pneumoniae) by the traditional c...

BACKGROUND S. pneumoniae is a leading cause of meningitis morbidity and mortality in the African meningitis belt, but little is known of its contribution to the burden of pneumonia in the region. We aimed to estimate the incidence of pneumococcal disease in children and adults in northern Togo, before the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV). METHODS AND FINDINGS From May 1st ...

UNLABELLED The FtsEX protein complex has recently been proposed to play a major role in coordinating peptidoglycan (PG) remodeling by hydrolases with the division of bacterial cells. According to this model, cytoplasmic FtsE ATPase interacts with the FtsZ divisome and FtsX integral membrane protein and powers allosteric activation of an extracellular hydrolase interacting with FtsX. In the majo...

Streptococcus pneumoniae, pneumococcus, is an important human pathogen that causes both serious invasive infections, such as septicaemia, meningitis and pneumonia, as well as mild upper respiratory infections. It also belongs to the normal nasopharyngeal microbial flora. The purpose of this study was to compare bacteriological phenotypic methods with genetechnological methods in the identificat...

BACKGROUND Bacterial colonization of the upper airways is a prerequisite for subsequent invasive disease. With the introduction of the 7- and 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV7 and PCV13), changes in pneumococcal upper airway colonization have been described. It is, however, less evident whether the vaccines lead to compositional changes of the upper airway microbiota. Here, we per...