Using data from an ongoing Swedish intervention project, the observed durations of nasopharyngeal carriage of penicillin-nonsusceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae (PNSP) (MIC of penicillin G of >or=0.5 microg/ml) stratified by both pneumococcal serogroup and age of the carrier were compared. The means and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated by fitting a gamma distribution to the observe...

BACKGROUND Pneumococcal infections cause major morbidity and mortality in developing countries. We report the epidemiology of S. pneumoniae carriage in a developing region, the Gaza strip, and evaluate the theoretical coverage of carriage strains by pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs). METHODOLOGY In 2009 we conducted a cross-sectional survey of S. pneumoniae carriage in healthy children a...

BACKGROUND Natural immunity to Neisseria meningitidis may result from nasopharyngeal carriage of closely related commensals, such as Neisseria lactamica. METHODS We enrolled 61 students with no current carriage of Neisseria species and inoculated them intranasally with 10,000 colony-forming units of Neisseria lactamica or sham control. Colonization was monitored in oropharyngeal samples over ...

BACKGROUND The bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) are leading causes of childhood pneumonia and meningitis and are major contributors to worldwide mortality in children younger than 5 years of age. Asymptomatic nasopharyngeal carriage of pneumococcus and Hib was determined for healthy children in Shanghai in 2009. METHODS Children from 5 i...

BACKGROUND Introduction of pneumococcal vaccines in Nigeria is a priority as part of the Accelerated Vaccine Introduction Initiative (AVI) of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI). However, country data on the burden of pneumococcal disease (IPD) is limited and coverage by available conjugate vaccines is unknown. This study was carried out to describe the pre vaccination epid...

UNLABELLED Streptococcus pneumonia is an increasing problem worldwide and nasopharyngeal colonization plays an important role in pneumococcal infections. The aims of this study were to assess the nasopharyngeal colonization rate, investigate the risk factors for nasopharyngeal colonization with S. pneumonia, serogroup and penicillin susceptibility patterns of Streptococcus pneumoniae strains is...

Neisseria meningitidis is a human specific pathogen that is part of the normal nasopharyngeal flora. Little is known about the metabolic constraints on survival of the meningococcus during colonization of the upper airways. Here we show that glucose and lactate, both carbon energy sources for meningococcal growth, are present in millimolar concentrations within nasopharyngeal tissue. We used a ...