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Updated: Jun 11, 2026

Following in Real Time the Impact of Pneumococcal Virulence Factors in an Acute Mouse Pneumonia Model Using Bioluminescent Bacteria
Published on: February 23, 2014
Asymptomatic colonization of upper respiratory tract by potential bacterial pathogens
Rupak Dhakal1, S Sujatha, S C Parija
1Department of Microbiology, JIPMER, Puducherry, India. rupak@jipmer.net
Objective:
To screen for asymptomatic respiratory carriage of S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae and Group A Streptococcus (GAS) in children attending JIPMER, correlate carriage rate with different socio-demographic factors and to detect antimicrobial resistance among the isolates.
Methods:
Throat swabs were collected from both in patients and out patients (
Results:
Overall carriage rate of respiratory pathogens was 30% with S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae and GAS accounting for 22%, 5% and 4.5% respectively. Three patients had >1 organism. Antibiotic resistance was highest in S. pneumoniae with 66.7% of strains resistant to penicillin. MDR strains were also encountered. Erythromycin resistance was observed in both H. influenzae (28.4%) and GAS (22%). No statistically significant association was found between the carriage rate of these organisms and different socio-demographic factors.
Conclusions:
S. pneumoniae carriage rate was comparatively higher in the Community and its antimicrobial resistance is an issue to address.
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