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Respiratory carriage of Kingella kingae among healthy children
P Yagupsky1, R Dagan, F Prajgrod
1Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, Soroka Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Insights
Kingella kingae commonly colonizes the throats of young children in daycare, with prevalence peaking in winter and spring. This carriage does not appear to lead to invasive infections in this age group.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Microbiology
- Infectious Diseases
Background:
- Kingella kingae is an emerging invasive pathogen in young children.
- The respiratory tract niche and carriage prevalence of K. kingae in children are not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the prevalence and carriage patterns of Kingella kingae in the respiratory tract of children.
- To determine the age-related prevalence of K. kingae.
Main Methods:
- Collected throat and nasopharyngeal cultures bi-weekly from children in daycare.
- Obtained throat cultures from hospitalized children and infants for age-related prevalence assessment.
- Monitored K. kingae prevalence over an 11-month period.
Main Results:
- Kingella kingae was detected in 27.5% of throat cultures from daycare attendees, with monthly prevalence ranging from 6.1% to 34.6%.
- 72.9% of daycare children carried K. kingae, exhibiting continuous or intermittent carriage patterns.
- Pharyngeal carriage was 8.0% in surgical patients; K. kingae was not found in infants under 6 months.
Conclusions:
- Kingella kingae is frequently carried in the throat of young children attending daycare.
- Carriage prevalence shows seasonal variation with peaks in winter and spring.
- Colonization with K. kingae did not result in invasive disease among the studied children.
Abstract:
The role of Kingella kingae as an invasive pathogen of young children is being increasingly recognized, but the niche of the organism in the respiratory tract and its prevalence in the normal flora of children remain unknown. To investigate these two aspects throat and nasopharyngeal cultures were obtained every 2 weeks from two cohorts of children, ages 6 to 42 months on enrollment, attending a day-care center in southern Israel. To determine the age-related prevalence of K. kingae, throat cultures were obtained from children ages 6 months to 14 years hospitalized for elective surgery who had not received antibiotics during the previous 30 days and from healthy infants younger than 6 months attending a well-baby-care clinic for routine vaccinations. During an 11-month follow-up 109 of 624 (27.5%) throat cultures but none of the nasopharyngeal cultures obtained from 48 day-care center attendees grew K. kingae. The monthly prevalence of K. kingae ranged from 6.1 to 34.6% with December and April peaks. Overall 35 of 48 (72.9%) children had at least one positive culture for the organism. Among the 27 children who had > or = 2 positive cultures, continuous and intermittent patterns of carriage were observed. None of the colonized children experienced an invasive K. kingae infection. The prevalence of pharyngeal carriage among surgical patients was 8.0%, and the organism was not isolated from any of the infants younger than 6 months attending the well-baby-care clinic.