Pneumococcal carriage in children in The Netherlands: A molecular epidemiological study

Citation
D. Bogaert et al., Pneumococcal carriage in children in The Netherlands: A molecular epidemiological study, J CLIN MICR, 39(9), 2001, pp. 3316-3320
Citations number
38
Categorie Soggetti
Clinical Immunolgy & Infectious Disease",Microbiology
Journal title
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY
ISSN journal
00951137 → ACNP
Volume
39
Issue
9
Year of publication
2001
Pages
3316 - 3320
Database
ISI
SICI code
0095-1137(200109)39:9<3316:PCICIT>2.0.ZU;2-M
Abstract
In 1999, Engelen and coworkers investigated colonization in Amsterdam among 259 children attending 16 day-care centers (DCCs) and among 276 children w ho did not attend day-care centers (NDCCs). A 1.6- to 3.4-fold increased ri sk for nasopharyngeal colonization was observed in children attending DCCs compared with NDCC children, while no difference in antibiotic resistance w as found between groups. The serotype and genotype distributions of 305 nas opharyngeal Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates of the latter study were inve stigated. The predominant serotypes in both the DCC and the NDCC groups inc luded 19F (19 and 18%, respectively), 6B (14 and 16%, respectively), 6A (13 and 7%, respectively), 23F (9 and 7%, respectively), and 9V (7 and 7%, res pectively). The theoretical vaccine coverage of the 7-valent conjugate vacc ine was 59% for the DCC children and 56%, for the NDCC group. Genetic analy sis of the pneumococcal isolates revealed 75% clustering among pneumococci isolated from DCC attendees versus 50% among the NDCC children. The average pneumococcal cluster size in the DCC group was 3.8 and 4.6 isolates for tw o respective sample dates (range, 2 to 13 isolates per cluster), while the average cluster size for the NDCC group was 3.0 (range, 2 to 6 isolates per cluster). Similar to observations made in other countries, these results i ndicate a higher risk for horizontal spread of pneumococci in Dutch DCCs th an in the general population. This study emphasizes the importance of molec ular epidemiological monitoring before, during, and after implementation of pneumococcal conjugate vaccination in national vaccination programs for ch ildren.