During a 1-year period from October 1995 to September 1996, 273 isolations of Streptococcus pneumoniae were made from various types of clinical specimens. The majority of the isolates (39.2%) were from sputum whilst 27.5% were from blood, CSF and other body fluids. The organism was isolated from patients of all age groups, 31.1% from children aged 10 years and below, 64.7% of which come from children aged 2 years or below. The majority of the isolates belong to serotypes 1, 6B, 19B, 19F and 23F. Serotypes 1 and 19B were the most common serotypes associated with invasive infection. About 71.9% of the invasive infections were due to serotypes included in the available 23 valent polysaccharide vaccine. The rates of resistance to penicillin and erythromycin were 7.0 and 1.1% respectively. Our findings show that the serotypes of S. pneumoniae causing most invasive infections in Malaysia are similar to those in other parts of the world and the available vaccine may have a useful role in this population.

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Using district-level data for the 1971-2010 period, we examine the convergence in agricultural productivity. We find significant spatial variation in agricultural productivity and growth in the past four decades at different levels of spatial aggregation, and we find evidence of both absolute and conditional convergence. The state-wise convergence suggests that the districts of most states are converging towards the steady-state. At the regional level there is strong convergence for all the four regions. Conditional convergence suggests that districts with better initial conditions are growing at a higher rate.

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