Background:The burden of disease caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae is unknown in South Africa due to the lack of reliable diagnostic tools and clinicians rarely requesting testing. We sought to describe the prevalence of M. pneumoniae.Methods & Materials: Patients with severe respiratory illness (SRI), influenza-like illness (ILI) and asymptomatic individuals were enrolled from May 2012 to August 2013. Nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal specimens were collected from all patients; induced sputum was collected from SRI patients only. Real-time PCR targeting the community-acquired respiratory distress syndrome toxin gene (MP181) was used to identify M. pneumoniae. Macrolide susceptibility testing, using high-resolution melt curve analysis (HRM) of the 23S rRNA gene and multiple-locus variablenumber tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) was performed on 70% (30/43) of M. pneumoniae-positive nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal specimens. Of these, 80% (24/30) had sufficient volume for culturing. P1 typing was performed on culture-positive specimens using HRM.Results: 3201 SRI patients, 2073 ILI patients and 714 asymptomatic individuals were enrolled, and testing was performed on 71% (2280/3201), 80% (1657/2073) and 74% (525/714) with a detection rate of 2% (46/2280), 1% (15/1657) and 0.2% (1/525), respectively. Among the 46 SRI cases with positive specimens, M. pneumoniae was detected in 24 nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal specimens, 16 induced sputum specimens and 6 cases were positive in both specimen types. M. pneumoniae was detected in all age groups with 61% (28/46) of cases occurring in children < 5 years. Of those tested using MLVA (73%, 22/30), 3 distinct types, 3/5/6/2 (36%, 8/22), 3/6/6/2 (36%, 8/22) and 4/5/7/2 (27%, 6/22) were identified. Macrolide susceptibility testing results were obtained for 77% (23/30) of M. pneumoniae-positive nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal specimens, all of which were susceptible. A positive culture for M. pneumoniae was obtained for 13% (3/24) of nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal specimens, of which two were P1 type 2 and one was P1 type 1.Conclusion: Prevalence of M. pneumoniae was the highest amongst children < 5 years with SRI. No macrolide resistance was detected. Both P1 type 1 and type 2 were present in culture-positive specimens.

Diseases of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract or the gut could be bacterial, viral, fungal and/or parasitic such as protozoal, helminth etc. Out of all these causes, the bacterial diseases associated with the gut are predominant. Bacterial diseases of the gut not only implicate the functions of the gut, but its effects get manifested through disturbances in other physiological functions of the body as well. The most pertinent approach to ameliorate the gut associated bacterial infection are the use of antibiotics. Besides use as therapeutics, antibiotics are also used as growth promoters in poultry, and sometimes in pigs. Sustained and indiscriminate use of antibiotics have resulted in development of microbial resistance to antibiotics, and give rise to 'super-bugs', which are practically unmanageable at times. Moreover, the antibiotic residues are found in foods of the animal origin like milk, meat and eggs which cause a serious public health concern. These caveats have challenged the research community to explore novel antimicrobial agents. Nano materials as antimicrobials complementary to antibiotics are highly promising. Besides being highly bioavailable, nanominerals also facilitate in promoting growth in livestock, and imparting antimicrobial and immunomodulatory effects. The important antibacterial mode of action of the nanominerals are disruption of membrane integrity and/or its potential, production of reactive oxygen species, depletion of ATP production, denaturation of cytoplasmic ribosome subunit and disruption of protein translation. Metals and metal oxides nanoparticles such as silver (Ag), iron oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ), titanium oxide (TiO 2 ), copper oxide (CuO), and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles are predominantly known to impart antimicrobial activity.