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PNEUMONIA IN NEW GUINEA: II. PNEUMOCOCCAL SEROTYPES AND THE POSSIBLE UTILITY OF POLYVALENT VACCINES OF CAPSULAR POLYSACCHARIDES
Author(s) -
Devitt Lorraine,
Douglas R. M.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1973.tb119603.x
Subject(s) - serotype , sputum , pneumonia , pneumococcal pneumonia , bacteremia , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , vaccination , streptococcus pneumoniae , blood culture , immunology , virology , biology , antibiotics , pathology , tuberculosis
Isolates of Pneumococcus obtained from sputum samples and blood cultures of 276 adult patients suffering from pneumonia were typed by the Quellung reaction using the 46 Danish antisera of Lund. All isolates were typable. Types 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 19 and 46 accounted for 57% of 244 sputum isolates and 68% of 50 blood culture isolates. Type 1 bacteremia was present in five of the six patients who died. The serotypes obtained fom patients with multisegmental and unisegmental pneumonia tended to differ from those isolated from patients with bronchopneumonia and those who had clinical signs suggesting alveolar infection, but from whom a clear chest X‐ray film was obtained. Available evidence suggests that the number of highly invasive pneumococcal serotypes Is quite small, and that vaccination of high‐risk populations with capsular antigens of these serotypes may offer an important preventive approach.