Streptococcus pneumoniae as a frequent cause of severe community-acquired pneumonia among children in Beijing

Excerpt

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a major cause of childhood morbidity worldwide and is a significant cause of child death in developing countries [1, 2]. The gram-positive pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae (S. pneumoniae) is one of the major causative agents of bacterial CAP. In many countries, the incidence of pneumococcal pneumonia has been reduced by the development and widespread use of pneumococcal vaccine [3]. In China, however, the causative agents of child CAP, especially in severe cases, have not been routinely determined. Such information is important in the development of strategies for vaccine prophylaxis and antibiotics therapy. Specific diagnostic techniques identifying the microorganism at the site of infection (lung tissue) are certainly helpful in determining the causal relationship, particularly in fatal cases. In line with this, in situ polymerase chain reaction (ISPCR) is particularly suitable because, first, it provides information relative to the localization of the bacteria in the lungs, and, second, it requires only very small samples. The present study was performed to analyze the role of S. pneumoniae as the causative agent of fatal outcome of severe pneumonia in Chinese children. In order to achieve this objective, conventional PCR, Southern blotting, and ISPCR were applied to detect the presence of S. pneumoniae in paraffin-embedded autopsy lung tissue samples from historic cases of fatal childhood CAP. …