Serotype distribution and drug resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae, Palestinian Territories.

To determine antimicrobial drug resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes, we analyzed isolates from blood cultures of sick children residing in the West Bank before initiation of pneumococcal vaccination. Of 120 serotypes isolated, 50.8%, 73.

Comparison between pernasal flocked swabs and nasopharyngeal aspirates for detection of common respiratory viruses in samples from children.

In this prospective study we compared the use of pernasal flocked swab samples with the use of nasopharyngeal aspirate (NPA) samples for the detection of respiratory viruses from 455 children less than 5 years of age. Overall, the sensitivity and the specificity of the pernasal flocked swab samples were 98.5% and 100%, respectively.

Survival of fastidious and nonfastidious aerobic bacteria in three bacterial transport swab systems.

In the present study, we followed the CLSI procedure M40-A to evaluate three specimen transport systems [the new BD CultureSwab MaxV(+), the new Remel BactiSwab, and the Medical Wire & Equipment Transwab] for the survival of fastidious and nonfastidious organisms for 0, 6, 24, and 48 h at room temperature. BD CultureSwab MaxV(+) outperformed the other two swabs for the recovery of the three fastidious organisms, Haemophilus influenzae, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and Neisseria meningitidis for up to 48 h. Indeed, BD CultureSwab MaxV(+) maintained a constant number of viable H.