Pneumococcal Carriage in Children in The Netherlands: a Molecular Epidemiological Study

ABSTRACT In 1999, Engelen and coworkers investigated colonization in Amsterdam among 259 children attending 16 day-care centers (DCCs) and among 276 children who did not attend day-care centers (NDCCs). A 1.6- to 3.4-fold increased risk for nasopharyngeal colonization was observed in children attending DCCs compared with NDCC children, while no difference in antibiotic resistance was found between groups. The serotype and genotype distributions of 305 nasopharyngeal Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates of the latter study were investigated. The predominant serotypes in both the DCC and the NDCC g... Mehr ...