Viruses are associated with different NP bacterial colonization patterns. Observed pathogens' associations may play a role in disease, and continuous surveillance is required to follow possible effects of interventions such as vaccines.

No abstract

A B S T R A C TPneumococci (n = 1033) isolated in the major paediatric hospitals of Athens during 2001-2004 from children with invasive infections (n = 186), non-invasive infections (n = 641) and healthy carriers (n = 206) were studied. The most prevalent serotypes were serotypes 14 (44.6%), 19F (43.5%) and 6B (22.8%) in invasive, non-invasive and carriage isolates, respectively. Among invasive isolates, the potential coverage by the sevenvalent conjugate vaccine was 75.3%. Resistance rates to penicillin, amoxycillin, cefotaxime, erythromycin, co-trimoxazole, clindamycin, tetracycline and chloramphenicol were 44.6%, 2.7%, 1.2%, 43.6%, 43.5%, 12.4%, 34.7% and 5.9%, respectively. The M-phenotype accounted for 68.0% of the erythromycin-resistant isolates. All isolates were susceptible to ofloxacin.

No abstract

U-LTE4 is strongly associated with the acute wheeze episode in preschool children, more so in atopics. Increased basal levels of U-LTE4 occur only in atopics. This suggests a potential role of U-LTE4 as a marker of atopic, virus-induced asthma in preschool children.