[Monitoring the prevalence of Streptococcus pneumoniae in various groups].

Background: The aim of the present study was to monitor the nasopharyngeal presence of Streptococcus pneumoniae in different age groups (especially children) in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. The purpose of this screening was to determine the prevalence of different serotypes and to follow up the presence of pneumococcus in these children after the vaccination with heptavalent protein-conjugate vaccine. A contribution of molecular biology techniques was the detection of S.