The rate of Streptococcus pneumoniae carriage among adults was compared with that among children (age, < or =6 years) in the same population. Nasopharyngeal culture results for 1300 adults and 404 children were analyzed. S. pneumoniae was carried by only 4% of the adults, compared with 53% of children in the same community. Young age, day care center attendance, having young siblings, and no antibiotic use during the month before screening were associated with the high carriage rate among children, whereas the only risk factor associated with carriage among adults was the presence of a respiratory infection on the screening day. S. pneumoniae serotype distribution and antibiotic resistance patterns differed between adults and children. Isolates of the same serotype--even of the same clone--differed in their antibiotic susceptibility patterns between children and adults. In a subanalysis of 151 pairs of children and their parents and of 32 pairs of siblings, intrafamilial transmission of S. pneumoniae could not be demonstrated.

Kingella kingae organisms isolated from the blood of 3 children with invasive infections were identical by pulsed field gel electrophoresis and random amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction analysis to those recovered from the patients' pharynx, demonstrating the likely role of upper respiratory tract colonization in the pathogenesis of the disease caused by this bacterium.

Parental S. aureus colonization, but not DCC attendance or having young siblings, is an independent predictor for staphylococcal carriage in young children.

Urine samples from 19 nursing home patients with long-term urinary catheters were cultured every 3 months for 18 months. Providencia stuartii, present in 74% of the elderly and in 59% of urine specimens, was the most frequently isolated bacteria. The persistence of P. stuartii was significantly higher among females than among males. In order to study the epidemiology of bacteriuria in this nursing home, bacteria were characterized by biochemical tests, antibiotic susceptibility patterns, and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. The antibiotic susceptibility pattern indicated that each patient had two to three different strains of P. stuartii during the 18 months of follow-up. In contrast, the RFLP analysis revealed that a specific strain had persisted in the urinary tract of the patient during the entire follow-up period. According to the biochemical profile, 74% of the patients had the same bacteria in urine cultures, pointing to a common source of transmission. RFLP analysis, however, demonstrated different patterns of RFLP, suggesting concomitant multiple sources of infection.

The aims of the study presented here were to determine the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus carriage and, specifically, community-acquired methicillin-resistant S. aureus (CA-MRSA) carriage in children and their parents in Israel and to determine the genetic relatedness of these isolates. S. aureus was isolated from 580 of 3,373 (17.2%) individuals screened. The predominant type identified by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis was strain ST45-MSSA (25%). Five MRSA isolates were detected, and two of these were classified as CA-MRSA, based on the following criteria: no previous contact with a healthcare facility, absence of a multidrug-resistant (MDR) phenotype, and presence of SCCmec type IV. Isolates were negative for pvl and were classified as ST-45-MRSA. Although CA-MRSA is still rare in Israel, the genetic relatedness of the strains found in this study to a successful MSSA clone warrants close follow up.