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. 2020 Aug 18;7(9):ofaa368.
doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa368. eCollection 2020 Sep.

Limited Added Value of Oropharyngeal Swabs for Detecting Pneumococcal Carriage in Adults

Jennifer L Farrar  1 , Herine Odiembo  2 , Arthur Odoyo  2 , Godfrey Bigogo  2 , Lindsay Kim  1 , Fernanda C Lessa  1 , Daniel R Feikin  2 , Robert F Breiman  3 , Cynthia G Whitney  1 , Maria G Carvalho  1 , Fabiana C Pimenta  1
Affiliations

Limited Added Value of Oropharyngeal Swabs for Detecting Pneumococcal Carriage in Adults

Jennifer L Farrar et al. Open Forum Infect Dis. .

Abstract

We compared pneumococcal isolation rates and evaluated the benefit of using oropharyngeal (OP) specimens in addition to nasopharyngeal (NP) specimens collected from adults in rural Kenya. Of 846 adults, 52.1% were colonized; pneumococci were detected from both NP and OP specimens in 23.5%, NP only in 22.9%, and OP only in 5.7%. Ten-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine strains were detected from both NP and OP in 3.4%, NP only in 4.1%, and OP only in 0.7%. Inclusion of OP swabs increased carriage detection by 5.7%; however, the added cost of collecting and processing OP specimens may justify exclusion from future carriage studies among adults.

Keywords: Streptococcus pneumoniae; adults; carriage; colonization; nasopharyngeal; oropharyngeal.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Added value of using oropharyngeal swabs on vaccine-type serotype distribution of pneumococcal isolates in adults in rural Kenya, 2012. Abbreviations: NP, nasopharyngeal; OP, oropharyngeal.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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