Streptococcus pneumoniae nasopharyngeal carriage prevalence, serotype distribution, and resistance patterns among children on Lombok Island, Indonesia

Few data exist on childhood pneumococcal carriage prevalence, serotype dist ribution, and resistance patterns for Indonesia, the world's fourth most po pulous country. During August 1997, nasopharyngeal samples were collected f rom a population-based, island-wide sample of 484 healthy children (age, 0- 25 months) from Lombok Island, Indonesia. Two hundred twenty-one pneumococc al isolates were identified, for a carriage prevalence of 48%; 66% of isola tes were of serogroup or serotype 6, 23, 15, 33, or 12. All isolates were s usceptible to penicillin and cefotaxime. Twelve percent of the isolates wer e nonsusceptible to sulfamethoxazole or chloramphenicol and 4% were nonsusc eptible to both of these drugs. Nonsusceptible organisms were most frequent ly serogroup or serotype 6, 12, and 33. Lombok has a moderate pneumococcal carriage prevalence and a relatively low proportion of resistant isolates. At least 3 of the 5 most common serogroups and serotypes and 2 of the 3 mos t common nonsusceptible serogroups and serotypes are not included in the cu rrent 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.