Background: Nasopharyngeal pneumococcal carriage rates among HIV-infected adults has not been described since conjugate pneumococcal vaccine-13 (PCV13) was added to the universal infant and childhood vaccination schedule in 2010.
Methods: HIV-infected adults presenting for routine health care visits to the Designated AIDS Center in Syracuse, NY between December 2013 and June 2015 were eligible for enrollment. Demographic, medical, and social history were recorded after obtaining informed consent. Nasopharyngeal samples were collected and cultured for the presence of Streptococcus pneumoniae using standard microbiologic techniques. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed using E-test→.
Results: 707 nasopharyngeal samples were collected from 414 HIV-infected adults. 18 samples were culture positive for S. pneumoniae; 1 (6%) isolate was of vaccine-type, 9 (50%) were non-vaccine types, and 8 (44%) were non-typeable. The 18 isolates were recovered from 15 different patients (4% of those enrolled). Three patients were culture positive for pneumococcus isolated from 2 consecutive samples, with non-typeable pneumococci identified consecutively from 2 patients and serotype 35B identified consecutively from 1 patient. The most commonly identified non-vaccine serotypes were 35B and 15B/C. Identified pneumococci were penicillin and cefotaxime susceptible.
Conclusion: Four percent of HIV-infected adults in our study population were colonized with S. pneumoniae. The non-vaccine serotypes 35B and 15B/C predominated.
Keywords: HIV; conjugate pneumococcal vaccine; pneumococcal carriage; pneumococcus.