Skip to main content
Emerging Infectious Diseases logoLink to Emerging Infectious Diseases
. 2000 Mar-Apr;6(2):165–170. doi: 10.3201/eid0602.000209

Haemophilus influenzae type b and Streptococcus pneumoniae as causes of pneumonia among children in Beijing, China.

O S Levine 1, G Liu 1, R L Garman 1, S F Dowell 1, S Yu 1, Y H Yang 1
PMCID: PMC2640844  PMID: 10756150

Abstract

To determine if Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and Streptococcus pneumoniae could be identified more often from the nasopharynx of patients with pneumonia than from control patients, we obtained nasopharyngeal swab specimens from 96 patients with chest x-ray-confirmed pneumonia and 214 age-matched control patients with diarrhea or dermatitis from the outpatient department at Beijing Children's Hospital. Pneumonia patients were more likely to be colonized with Hib and S. pneumoniae than control patients, even after the data were adjusted for possible confounding factors such as day-care attendance, the presence of other children in the household, and recent antibiotic use. In China, where blood cultures from pneumonia patients are rarely positive, the results of these nasopharyngeal cultures provide supporting evidence for the role of Hib and S. pneumoniae as causes of childhood pneumonia.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (211.0 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Barbour M. L. Conjugate vaccines and the carriage of Haemophilus influenzae type b. Emerg Infect Dis. 1996 Jul-Sep;2(3):176–182. doi: 10.3201/eid0203.960303. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Barker J., Gratten M., Riley I., Lehmann D., Montgomery J., Kajoi M., Gratten H., Smith D., Marshall T. F., Alpers M. P. Pneumonia in children in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea: a bacteriologic study of patients selected by standard clinical criteria. J Infect Dis. 1989 Feb;159(2):348–352. doi: 10.1093/infdis/159.2.348. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bijlmer H. A., Evans N. L., Campbell H., Van Alphen L., Greenwood B. M., Valkenburg H. A., Zanen H. C. Carriage of Haemophilus influenzae in healthy Gambian children. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1989 Nov-Dec;83(6):831–835. doi: 10.1016/0035-9203(89)90345-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Eskola J., Anttila M. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 1999 Jun;18(6):543–551. doi: 10.1097/00006454-199906000-00015. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Gómez E., Moore A., Sánchez J., Kool J., Castellanos P. L., Feris J. M., Kolczak M., Levine O. S. The epidemiology of Haemophilus influenzae type b carriage among infants and young children in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 1998 Sep;17(9):782–786. doi: 10.1097/00006454-199809000-00006. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Lau Y. L., Low L. C., Yung R., Ng K. W., Leung C. W., Lee W. H., Ho A., Oppenheimer S. J. Invasive Haemophilus influenzae type b infections in children hospitalized in Hong Kong, 1986-1990. Hong Kong Hib Study Group. Acta Paediatr. 1995 Feb;84(2):173–176. doi: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1995.tb13604.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Lau Y. L., Yung R., Low L., Sung R., Leung C. W., Lee W. H. Haemophilus influenzae type b infections in Hong Kong. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 1998 Sep;17(9 Suppl):S165–S169. doi: 10.1097/00006454-199809001-00014. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Levine M. M., Levine O. S. Influence of disease burden, public perception, and other factors on new vaccine development, implementation, and continued use. Lancet. 1997 Nov 8;350(9088):1386–1392. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(97)03253-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Levine O. S., Lagos R., Muñoz A., Villaroel J., Alvarez A. M., Abrego P., Levine M. M. Defining the burden of pneumonia in children preventable by vaccination against Haemophilus influenzae type b. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 1999 Dec;18(12):1060–1064. doi: 10.1097/00006454-199912000-00006. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Levine O. S., Schwartz B., Pierce N., Kane M. Development, evaluation and implementation of Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccines for young children in developing countries: current status and priority actions. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 1998 Sep;17(9 Suppl):S95–113. doi: 10.1097/00006454-199809001-00003. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Mulholland K., Hilton S., Adegbola R., Usen S., Oparaugo A., Omosigho C., Weber M., Palmer A., Schneider G., Jobe K. Randomised trial of Haemophilus influenzae type-b tetanus protein conjugate vaccine [corrected] for prevention of pneumonia and meningitis in Gambian infants. Lancet. 1997 Apr 26;349(9060):1191–1197. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(96)09267-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Orenstein W. A., Overturf G. D., Leedom J. M., Alvarado R., Geffner M., Fryer A., Chan L., Haynes V., Starc T., Portnoy B. The frequency of Legionella infection prospectively determined in children hospitalized with pneumonia. J Pediatr. 1981 Sep;99(3):403–406. doi: 10.1016/s0022-3476(81)80327-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Salisbury D. M. Summary statement: The First International Conference on Haemophilus influenzae type b infection in Asia. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 1998 Sep;17(9 Suppl):S93–S95. doi: 10.1097/00006454-199809001-00002. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Steinhoff M. C. Haemophilus influenzae type b infections are preventable everywhere. Lancet. 1997 Apr 26;349(9060):1186–1187. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(97)22017-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Sung R. Y., Ling J. M., Fung S. M., Oppenheimer S. J., Crook D. W., Lau J. T., Cheng A. F. Carriage of Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae in healthy Chinese and Vietnamese children in Hong Kong. Acta Paediatr. 1995 Nov;84(11):1262–1267. doi: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1995.tb13545.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Wang C. H., Lin T. Y. Invasive Haemophilus influenzae diseases and purulent meningitis in Taiwan. J Formos Med Assoc. 1996 Aug;95(8):599–604. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Wang H., Huebner R., Chen M., Klugman K. Antibiotic susceptibility patterns of Streptococcus pneumoniae in china and comparison of MICs by agar dilution and E-test methods. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1998 Oct;42(10):2633–2636. doi: 10.1128/aac.42.10.2633. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Wubbel L., Muniz L., Ahmed A., Trujillo M., Carubelli C., McCoig C., Abramo T., Leinonen M., McCracken G. H., Jr Etiology and treatment of community-acquired pneumonia in ambulatory children. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 1999 Feb;18(2):98–104. doi: 10.1097/00006454-199902000-00004. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Yang Y., Leng Z., Shen X., Lu D., Jiang Z., Rao J., Fan X., Liu J., Shen Y. Acute bacterial meningitis in children in Hefei, China 1990-1992. Chin Med J (Engl) 1996 May;109(5):385–388. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Yang Y., Shen X., Jiang Z., Liu X., Leng Z., Lu D., Rao J., Liu J., Chang L. Study on Haemophilus influenzae type b diseases in China: the past, present and future. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 1998 Sep;17(9 Suppl):S159–S165. doi: 10.1097/00006454-199809001-00013. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Emerging Infectious Diseases are provided here courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

RESOURCES