Pneumococcal colonization among healthy and hospitalized vaccine-naive Sri Lankan children.

Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae continues to cause mortality and morbidity despite availability of effective vaccines. Pneumococcal colonization is considered a pre-requisite for disease. Identifying the serotypes circulating in a given locale is important for surveillance purposes as well as for assessing the need for vaccination. Aim of the present study was to identify nasopharyngeal pneumococcal colonization rates in healthy children and children with respiratory tract infections in central Sri Lanka.

Method: A total of 450 nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) of children aged between 2 months and 2 years were collected from two groups; healthy children and children hospitalized with respiratory symptoms. NPS samples were processed using conventional laboratory techniques to isolate S. pneumoniae. Antibiotic susceptibility patterns of pneumococcal isolates were identified using CLSI disc diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined by micro-broth dilution method.

Results: Pneumococcal colonization rate among healthy children was 31.8% (143/450) it was 39.8% (179/450) in children hospitalized with respiratory symptoms. MIC for penicillin and cefotaxime ranged between 0.015 to 4 µg/ml and <0.015 to 16 µg/ml respectively. All isolates were susceptible to levofloxacin, vancomycin, linezolid and rifampicin. Erythromycin and tetracycline non-susceptibility rates were >50% in both groups. The predominant serotypes identified were 19F (n = 66, 20.5%), 6B (n = 43, 13.4%), 6A (n = 30, 9.3%), 23F (n = 28, 8.7%) and 14 (n = 20, 6.2%). Among healthy children, presence of school going children at home and the number of household members were significantly associated with pneumococcal colonization while in hospitalized children, pneumococcal colonization was significantly associated with presence of school going children at home.

Conclusion: Pneumococcal colonization rates were considerably higher in both study cohorts and the commonest serotypes were 19F, 6B, 6A, 23F and 14. Antibiotic resistance rates were also relatively higher among the pneumococcal isolates.