Pneumococcal Carriage in Jordanian Children and the Importance of Vaccination

Abstract

Pneumococcal carriage is a prerequisite for invasive and non-invasive infections, where children and elderly are the most vulnerable groups. Aims: Determine rates of carriage, resistance, and coverage of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) in children attending day care centers (DCC) in north Jordan. Methods: Nasopharyngeal swabs (NP) were taken from healthy Jordanian children from north Jordan with ages ranging from 1 month to 14 years in the period from 2008 to 2019. Classical methods were used for cultivation, identification, resistance testing, and serotyping. Results: 1866 NP swabs were tested with carriage rate 39.3% (733 isolates). Resistance was variable; however, it showed highest rates for penicillin (89.3%) and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (73.0%). Serotype 19F predominates with 17.6% of all serotypes. Coverage of the future PCV20 was 73.1% compared to the old PCV7 (41.7%). About 493 cases had a previous 1–3 PCV7 injections, among which 256 (51.9%) cases were pneumococcal carriers, distributed as non-PCV vaccine serotypes (31.6%), and with PCV types (68.4%). Conclusions: The potential inclusion of the PCV vaccination in the national immunization program of the country is necessary.

Pollen morphology of some selected species of the tribes Brassiceae, Conringieae, Isatideae, and Plagiolobeae (Brassicaceae) in Iran, and its taxonomic significance

“…Because pollen grains have unique biological characteristics, contain a large amount of genetic information, and exhibit strong genetic conservation, they can be used for species identification (Do gan et al 2011). Palynological characters mainly include pollen shape, size, aperture features, exine thickness, and exine ornamentation (Erdtman 1972;Abdel Khalik et al 2002;Perveen et al 2004;Sagun and Auer 2017;Zhang et al 2017), which play important roles in phylogenetic studies (Rollins and Banerjee 1979;Lahham and Al-Eisawi 1987;Zhang et al 2017). Light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are the main methods used to study pollen morphology (Erdtman 1972;Lahham and Al-Eisawi 1987;Abdel Khalik et al 2002).…”

“…Palynological characters mainly include pollen shape, size, aperture features, exine thickness, and exine ornamentation (Erdtman 1972;Abdel Khalik et al 2002;Perveen et al 2004;Sagun and Auer 2017;Zhang et al 2017), which play important roles in phylogenetic studies (Rollins and Banerjee 1979;Lahham and Al-Eisawi 1987;Zhang et al 2017). Light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are the main methods used to study pollen morphology (Erdtman 1972;Lahham and Al-Eisawi 1987;Abdel Khalik et al 2002). It seems a more comprehensive palynological survey of the family Brassicaceae (Cruciferae) is needed to determine the utility of pollen in taxonomic and phylogenetic studies of this family.…”

“…Khosravi & A. Eslami-Farouji (e.g. Erdtman 1952, 1963Moore and Webb 1978;Lahham and Al-Eisawi 1987;Abdel Khalik et al 2002;Perveen et al 2004;Al-Shehbaz et al 2006;Beilstein et al 2006;Khosravi et al 2009;German et al 2009;Couvreur et al 2010;Warwick et al 2010;Zhao et al 2010;Do gan et al 2011;Fuentes-Soriano and Al-Shehbaz 2013;Al-Shehbaz et al 2014;Khosravi et al 2022).…”