title: Phenotypic and genetic diversity of invasive pneumococcal isolates recovered from French children.
abstract: We investigated the phenotypic and genetic diversity (by ribotyping) of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates recovered from French children, by blood culture from meningitis-free patients (n = 244) and by cerebrospinal fluid culture from patients with meningitis (n = 154). Isolates belonging to serotypes associated with carriage and penicillin-resistant isolates were significantly more frequent in children under 2 years of age than in older children. The seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine covered 68% of strains associated with bacteremia and 61% of strains associated with meningitis in children under 2 years. Although some serotypes were recovered more frequently from children with bacteremia than from those with meningitis, no difference in the genetic backgrounds of the two groups of strains was found.
authors.affiliation: Service de Microbiologie, Hôpital Robert Debré, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Doit
authors.forename: Chawki
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Loukil
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Geslin
authors.forename: Edouard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bingen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016470:Bacteremia / Q000382:microbiology*; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008586:Meningitis, Pneumococcal / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D010403:Penicillin Resistance; D010406:Penicillins / Q000494:pharmacology; D010641:Phenotype; D011008:Pneumococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D021521:Ribotyping; D012703:Serotyping; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000145:classification* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D010406:Penicillins