Unraveling the seasonal epidemiology of pneumococcus.

ABSTRACT: Infections caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae-including invasive pneumococcal diseases (IPDs)-remain a significant public health concern worldwide. The marked winter seasonality of IPDs is a striking, but still enigmatic aspect of pneumococcal epidemiology in nontropical climates. Here we confronted age-structured dynamic models of carriage transmission and disease with detailed IPD incidence data to test a range of hypotheses about the components and the mechanisms of pneumococcal seasonality. We find that seasonal variations in climate, influenza-like illnesses, and interindividual contacts jointly explain IPD seasonality. We show that both the carriage acquisition rate and the invasion rate vary seasonally, acting in concert to generate the marked seasonality typical of IPDs. We

SUBMITTER: Domenech de Celles M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6358716 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature