Childhood acute respiratory infections surveillance in Nha Trang, Vietnam
We conducted a community-based study in Nha Trang, central Vietnam, to clarify the serotype distribution and pattern of S pneumoniae antimicrobial susceptibility in children under 5 years of age and to identify risk factors for carrying antimicrobial-resistant strains. Nasopharyngeal swabs collected from children with acute respiratory infections (ARIs) hospitalized between April 7, 2008, and March 30, 2009, and from healthy children randomly selected in July 2008 were subjected to bacterial culture. We collected 883 samples from 331 healthy children and 552 ARI cases. In this project, we revealed that S pneumoniae serotype 19F isolates, non-susceptible to multiple beta-lactam antimicrobials, were widely circulating among children living in central Vietnam.