Streptococcus pneumoniae carriage prevalence in Nepal: evaluation of a method for delayed transport of samples from remote regions and implications for vaccine implementation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Pneumococcal disease is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in young children in Nepal, and currently available pneumococcal conjugate vaccines offer moderate coverage of invasive disease isolates.

Methods

A prevalence study of children aged 1.5 to 24 months in urban and rural Nepal was conducted. In the urban group, nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) were transported using silica desiccant packages (SDP) with delayed processing (2 weeks), or skim-milk-tryptone-glucose-glycerin (STGG) with immediate processing (within 8 hours). Pneumococcal nasopharyngeal carriage prevalence, serogroup/type distribution and isolate genotypes (as defined by multilocus sequence typing) were determined.

Results

1101 children were enrolled into the study: 574 in the urban gr

SUBMITTER: Hanieh S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4048273 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature