Nasopharyngeal Colonization with Streptococcus Pneumoniae in Healthy Infants Less Than 60 Days Attending the Outpatient Clinic of Alexandria University Children’s Hospital

Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is a bacterial pathogen that affects children and adults worldwide [1]. Although S. pneumoniae is the leading bacterial cause of respiratory tract infections, it is also capable of causing a wide variety of infectious syndromes including meningitis, peritonitis, and sepsis [2-4]. The present study is to determine the prevalence of pneumococcus colonization among apparently healthy infants below 60 days of age and to identify the prevalent pneumococcal serotypes among this infant population In this study over a period of 14 months. Sample size was found to be 531 infants. The sample was selected by the systematic random procedure [5]. The results revealed that 0.75 % (n=4/531) of infants showed positive carriage of pneumococcus in their nasopharynx.

After serotyping, only one case of 4 strept. Pneumonia identified as vaccine included type and the remaining 3 were of non –vaccine type and this result was checked by real-time PCR serogrouping.75% of cases were sensitive to penicillin and the remaining 25% were resistant.

Keywords: Pneumococcal carriage; Healthy infants; Prevalence in less than 60 days; Pneumococcal serotypes; Penicillin sensitivity