Impact of Pneumococcal Vaccination in the Nasopharyngeal Carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae in Healthy Children of the Murcia Region in Spain.

Background: An epidemiological study of Streptococcus pneumoniae nasopharyngeal carriage in healthy children was carried out five years after the introduction of the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13).

Objectives: Study the impact of pediatric vaccination with PCV13, and other associated epidemiological factors on the status of nasopharyngeal carriage, the circulating pneumococcal serotypes, and the antibiotic susceptibility to more frequently used antibiotics.

Methods: A multi-center study was carried out in Primary Health Care, which included 1821 healthy children aged 1 to 4 years old.

[Epidemiological study of nasopharyngeal carriers of Streptococcus pneumoniae in children in Murcia region].

Background And Objectives: Streptococcus pneumoniae is a human pathogen that requires prior nasopharyngeal colonization to cause disease. An epidemiological study was conducted on nasopharyngeal carriers of pneumococci in healthy children in Murcia after the introduction of the VCN7, and immediately before the marketing of new vaccines, with the aim of determining the influence of vaccination in our geographic area, and other factors in relation to the state of being a carrier, and the different circulating serotypes.

Methods: A multicentre study was conducted in in 60 primary care health centres in summer 2009 and winter of 2010.