title: [Prevalence of upper respiratory tract group A Streptococcus carriage in school-age children from Tulufan City and Buerjin County of Xinjiang Province].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the prevalence rate of upper respiratory tract group A Streptococcus (GAS) carriage in school-age children from Xinjiang Province.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 478 children at age of 9-12 years from Tulufan City and Buerjin County of Xinjiang Province were enrolled by random cluster sampling. Throat swab cultures were performed once each season for the determination of presence of GAS.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the 1 827 samples, 196 GAS strains were isolated, with a GAS carrier rate of 10.7%. The prevalence rate of GAS carrier in Tulufan City ranged from 3.7%-16.5% compared with 4.7%-21.4% in Buerjin County (P < 0.05). The prevalence rate of GAS carrier in winter is the highest, followed by in autumn, spring and summer in both regions. There were significant differences in the GAS carriage rate in autumn between the two regions. There were no significant differences in the GAS carriage rate between boys and girls. Of the 196 GAS strains, 133 from Han, 22 from Uygur and 41 from Hazakh children. There were significant differences in the prevalence rate of GAS carriage among children with different ethic groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence rate of GAS carriage is high in school-age children from Tulufan and Buerjin of Xinjiang Province. The GAS carrier rate is associated with the season and ethic group. The children from Buerjin County present a higher GAS carrier rate than those from Tulufan City.
authors: First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi 830054, China.
authors: Kan
authors: K
authors: Sha
authors: Pei-Ru
authors: PR
authors: Xu
authors: Li-Kun
authors: LK
authors: Duo
authors: Li-Ba-Ha
authors: LB
authors: Gu
authors: Xiao-Mei
authors: XM
authors: Gao
authors: Ping
authors: P
authors: Ji
mesh_terms: D002353:Carrier State / Q000382:microbiology*; D002648:Child; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012137:Respiratory System / Q000382:microbiology*; D013297:Streptococcus pyogenes / Q000302:isolation & purification*