%0 Journal Article
%T Early acquisition and high nasopharyngeal co-colonisation by Streptococcus pneumoniae and three respiratory pathogens amongst Gambian new-borns and infants
%A Brenda A Kwambana
%A Michael R Barer
%A Christian Bottomley
%A Richard A Adegbola
%A Martin Antonio
%J BMC Infectious Diseases
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2334-11-175
%X Species specific PCR was applied to detect each microbe using purified genomic DNA from 498 nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs collected from 30 Gambian neonates every two weeks from 0 to 6 months and bi-monthly up to 12 months.All infants carried S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae and M. catarrhalis at several time points during infancy. S.pneumoniae co-colonized the infant nasopharynx with at least one other pathogen nine out of ten times. There was early colonization of the newborns and neonates, the average times to first detection were 5, 7, 3 and 14 weeks for S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae, M. catarrhalis and S. aureus respectively. The prevalence of S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae and M. catarrhalis increased among the neonates and exceeded 80% by 13, 15 and 23 weeks respectively. In contrast, the prevalence of S. aureus decreased from 50% among the newborns to 20% amongst nine-week old neonates. S. pneumoniae appeared to have a strong positive association with H. influenzae (OR 5.03; 95% CI 3.02, 8.39; p < 0.01) and M. catarrhalis (OR 2.20; 95% CI 1.29; p < 0.01) but it was negatively associated with S. aureus (OR 0.53; 95% CI 0.30, 0.94; p = 0.03).This study shows early acquisition and high co-carriage of three important respiratory pathogens with S. pneumoniae in the nasopharyngeal mucosa among Gambian neonates and infants. This has important potential implications for the aetiology of respiratory polymicrobial infections, biofilm formation and vaccine strategies.An astounding 83% of childhood deaths (< 5 years) between 1970 and 2009 occurred in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, sharply contrasted with less than 1% which occurred in high-income nations [1]. Invasive bacterial disease (IBD) such as pneumonia, meningitis and bacteraemia contribute to the disparity in childhood mortality in developing and developed countries [2,3]. 18% of the estimated eight million childhood deaths (< 5 years) which occurred worldwide in 2008 were attributed to pneumonia, making it the single common
%K Nasopharyngeal
%K PCR
%K respiratory pathogens
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/11/175