Carriage of multiple Streptococcus pneumoniae capsular types is frequent among children with invasive pneumococcal disease.
Sofia FélixDesirée HenaresCarmen Muñoz-AlmagroRaquel Sá-LeãoPublished in: European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology (2021)
Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is a human pathogen that colonizes the nasopharynx. We investigated serotype distribution in paired invasive and nasopharyngeal samples obtained from 57 children during invasive pneumococcal disease. Of 39 nasopharyngeal samples positive for pneumococci, 46.2% contained a serotype different from the one causing disease. This study reports a high frequency of pneumococcal multiple serotype carriage in children with invasive pneumococcal disease. Whether multiple serotype carriage is important for the onset and progress to pneumococcal infection warrants further investigation.