Streptococcus pneumoniae nasopharyngeal colonization in young healthy children:: Rate of carriage, serotype distribution, and antibiotic resistance

The nasopharyngeal colonization rate of Streptococcus pneumoniae and its antibiotic susceptibility was determined in a given population of 317 young children (ages 1-7 years) in the area of Bari, Italy. 18.29% of the cultures were positive for S. pneumoniae. 8.62% of the strains were intermediately resistant to penicillin. Erythromycin-(65.51%) and cotrimoxazole-(17.24%) resistance was also observed whereas all the strains resulted uniformely susceptible to cefotaxime and ceftriaxone. The high rate of nasopharyngeal carriage of S, treptococcus pneumoniae along with the resistance to antibiotics widely used in the community suggests the importance of epidemiological surveillance as well as the application of new vaccine strategies.