Abstract
Purpose :
Streptococcus pneumoniae a pathogen of keratoconjunctivitis and corneal ulcer, can exist as conjunctival flora. A Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) reduced dosing schedule study was planned in Nha Trang, Vietnam. Therefore before PCV introduction, we investigated the baseline prevalence and characteristics of Pneumococcus in conjunctiva among children in Nha Trang, Vietnam.
Methods :
The study was conducted in 6 communes of Nha Trang between October and November 2016. We targeted to recruit 60 (4-11 months old), 60 (14-23 months old) children in each commune. Conjunctival swabs, nasopharyngeal swabs, and demographic data were collected. S. pneumoniae presence was screened by lytA realtime PCR and serotyping was done by microarray method. Characteristics of the children with S.pneumoniae in conjunctiva were analyzed by logistic regression.
Results :
A total of 699 children were enrolled of which 80 (11.4%) had Pneumococci in conjunctiva. Older age group, lower birth weight, respiratory-illness hospitalization history, cough, running nose, eye symptom in last two weeks, nursery attendance and nasopharyngeal Pneumococcus carriage were associated with Pneumococcus positive conjunctiva by univariate analysis. Lower birth weight (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.9991, 95% confidence interval [95%CI] 0.9985-0.9997), nursery attendance (aOR 2.53, 95%CI 1.37-4.66), and nasopharyngeal Pneumococcus carriage (aOR 10.86, 95%CI 5.84-20.17) had positive association with Pneumococcus positive conjunctiva by multivariable logistic regression.
Conclusions :
Pneumococcus in conjunctiva was detected in 11.4% of Vietnamese children aged less than 24 months in pre-PCV era. Lower birth weight, having ever been to nursery, and Pneumococcus carriage in nasopharynx were independently associated with conjunctival carriage.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.