Hemophilus species in the pharynx. Comparison of sampling sites

In a study of 170 young children, we compared the number and serotype of ampicillin-sensitive and ampicillin-resistant Hemophilus species recovered from throat cultures with those recovered from nasopharyngeal cultures obtained simultaneously. Hemophilus species were recovered from 107 (63%) of the 170 throat cultures and from 79 (46%) of the 170 nasopharyngeal cultures (chi 2 = 12.6). In only five of the pairs of cultures did the nasopharyngeal culture contain Hemophilus species without simultaneous recovery of this organism from the throat culture. Ampicillin-resistant Hemophilus species were recovered from 29 throat swabs and from ten nasopharyngeal swabs.