Longitudinal Analysis of Nasopharyngeal Microbial Risk Markers for Fatal Acute Febrile Illness in a Zambian Birth Cohort.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Fatal acute febrile illness (fAFI) is a known predecessor of many infant mortality events in low-resource settings, yet early risk markers for this condition remain poorly understood. Nasopharyngeal (NP) microbiome patterns may influence the severity of these infections.

Methods

We analyzed longitudinal changes in the NP microbiota of Zambian infants with fAFI onset compared to healthy controls, aiming to identify microbial indicators associated with severe illness outcomes. We conducted a pooled analysis of a longitudinal nested case-control study comprised of 26 samples from 9 infants who developed fAFI compared with 69 samples from 10 healthy infants. Infants underwent nasopharyngeal sampling from 1 week through 14 weeks of age at 2-2.5-week intervals. We per

SUBMITTER: Odom AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12315046 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature