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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, March 2007, p. 948-952, Vol. 45, No. 3
0095-1137/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.01913-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Age- and Serogroup-Related Differences in Observed Durations of Nasopharyngeal Carriage of Penicillin-Resistant Pneumococci{triangledown}

Liselotte Högberg,1,3* Patricia Geli,1,3,4 Håkan Ringberg,5 Eva Melander,6 Marc Lipsitch,7 and Karl Ekdahl2,3,8

Department of Epidemiology, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, 171 82 Solna, Sweden,1 Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden,2 Stockholm Group for Epidemic Modeling, Stockholm, Sweden,3 Department of Mathematical Statistics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden,4 Regional Center of Communicable Disease Control in Skåne, Malmö, Sweden,5 Department of Clinical Microbiology, Lund University Hospital, Lund, Sweden,6 Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts,7 European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Stockholm, Sweden8

Received 14 September 2006/ Returned for modification 30 October 2006/ Accepted 22 December 2006

Using data from an ongoing Swedish intervention project, the observed durations of nasopharyngeal carriage of penicillin-nonsusceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae (PNSP) (MIC of penicillin G of ≥0.5 µg/ml) stratified by both pneumococcal serogroup and age of the carrier were compared. The means and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated by fitting a gamma distribution to the observed duration of carriage for each age and serogroup stratum. The mean observed duration of carriage for all cases was 37 days (95% CI, 35 to 38 days). Children below the age of 5 years carried PNSP for significantly longer periods (43 days; 95% CI, 41 to 45 days) compared with older individuals (25 days; 95% CI, 24 to 27 days). There were also differences within the group of cases below the age of 5 years, as the duration of carriage became significantly shorter for each increasing age step: <1, 1 to 2, and 3 to 4 years. In addition, patients <5 years of age carried serogroups 9 and 14 for significantly shorter periods than groups 6 and 23. Serogroup 9 was also carried for significantly shorter periods than group 19. For patients aged 5 years or older, no significant difference in carriage duration for different ages or serogroups could be noted. As young children have the longest duration of PNSP carriage, interventions aiming to reduce the prevalence in this group are of great importance. The results highlight the importance of taking both serogroup and age of the carriers into account when studying the dynamics of pneumococcal transmission in young children.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Epidemiology, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, 171 82 Solna, Sweden. Phone: 46-8-457 23 84. Fax: 46-8-30 06 26. E-mail: liselotte.hogberg{at}smi.ki.se.

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 3 January 2007.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, March 2007, p. 948-952, Vol. 45, No. 3
0095-1137/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.01913-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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