Table 2. Distribution of bacteria on nasopharyngeal swabs collected from children with URI, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA, 2003–2007*.
| Variable | Total no. (%) URI visits | No. (%) URI visits† |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3–4 | 5–6 | >6 | ||
| Total no. patients | 212 | 46 (21.7) | 42 (19.8) | 38 (17.9) | 37 (17.4) | 49 (23.1) |
| Total no. swabs |
968 |
46 (4.8) |
84 (8.7) |
128 (13.2) |
201 (20.8) |
509 (52.6) |
| Bacteria present (% of no. of swabs in each visit category) | ||||||
| 0 | 127 (13.1) | 9 (19.6) | 9 (10.7) | 13 (10.2) | 19 (9.4) | 77 (15.1) |
| 1 | ||||||
| Streptococcus pneumoniae | 79 (8.2) | 1 ( 2.2) | 9 (10.7) | 15 (11.7) | 20 (10.0) | 34 (6.7) |
| Haemophilus influenzae | 86 (8.9) | 7 (15.2) | 10 (11.9) | 11 (8.6) | 18 (9.0) | 40 (7.9) |
| Moraxella catarrhalis | 201 (20.8) | 10 (21.7) | 12 (14.3) | 27 (21.1) | 41 (20.4) | 111 (21.8) |
| Staphylococcus aureus | 24 (2.5) | 1 (2.2) | 2 (2.4) | 2 (1.6) | 3 (1.5) | 16 (3.1) |
| 2 | ||||||
| S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae | 28 (2.9) | 1 (2.2) | 2 (2.4) | 4 (3.1) | 8 (4.0) | 13 (2.6) |
| S. pneumoniae, M. catarrhalis | 187 (19.3) | 13 (28.3) | 20 (23.8) | 24 (18.8) | 36 (17.9) | 94 (18.5) |
| S. pneumoniae, S. aureus | 8 (0.8) | 0 | 1 (1.2) | 1 (1.0) | 4 (2.0) | 2 (0.4) |
| H. influenzae, M. catarrhalis | 67 (6.9) | 2 (4.4) | 5 (6.0) | 7 (5.5) | 13 (6.5) | 40 (7.9) |
| H. influenzae, S. aureus | 3 (0.3) | 0 | 1 (1.2) | 0 | 1 (0.5) | 1 (0.2) |
| M. catarrhalis, S. aureus | 17 (1.8) | 0 | 2 (2.4) | 3 (2.3) | 2 (1.0) | 10 (2.0) |
| 3 | ||||||
| S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae, M. catarrhalis | 124 (12.8) | 2 (4.4) | 8 (9.5) | 19 (14.8) | 31 (15.4) | 64 (12.6) |
| S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae, S. aureus | 2 (0.2) | 0 | 1 (1.2) | 0 | 0 | 1 (0.2) |
| S. pneumoniae, M. catarrhalis, S. aureus | 11 (1.1) | 0 | 1 (1.2) | 2 (1.6) | 4 (2.0) | 4 (0.8) |
| H. influenzae, M. catarrhalis, S. aureus | 2 (0.2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 (0.5) | 1 (0.2) |
| 4 | 2 (0.2) | 0 | 1 (1.2) | 0 | 0 | 1 (0.2) |
*URI, upper respiratory tract infection. †Data are presented as no. of physician visits/child. Because of our prospective study design, many children had >1 URI episode during the follow-up period, and some had >1 physician visit/URI episode. One nasopharyngeal swab sample was taken at each physician visit.