Nasopharyngeal Carriage Prevalence, Serotype Distribution and Antimicrobial Resistance of Streptococcus Pneumoniae Among Children with Chronic Diseases.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the nasopharyngeal (NP) carriage prevalence, serotype distribution and antimicrobial resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae (SP) in children with chronic diseases that predispose them to invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in comparison with healthy children.A cross sectional prevalence study was performed between February 2015 and February 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey. We enrolled 1024 children with chronic diseases and 394 healthy children aged 0-18 years.Overall prevalence of SPNP carriage was 9.8%. The prevalence of SPNP carriage among the healthy children was 8.4%, and among the children with chronic diseases, it was 10.3%.The prevalences of carriage were 17.5%, 13.5%, 10.5%, 9.3%, 8.6%, 8.6%, 8%, 6.7% and 4%, respectively, in each of the following risk groups: primary immunodeficiency, asthma, chronic renal failure, congenital heart diseases, chronic lung disease, leukemia, nephrotic syndrome, solid organ tumors and type 1 diabetes mellitus In the multivariate analysis, history of otitis media within the last year, history of pneumonia within the last year, and number of siblings age under 8 years more than one, were found to be independent risk factors for SPNP carriage in whole study population..