Background Information on pneumococcal serotype distribution before vaccination is a prerequisite for evaluation of vaccine effect. The aim was to investigate the prevalence of pneumococcal serotypes isolated from middle ear (ME), lower respiratory ...

Understanding the structure of a bacterial population is essential in order to understand bacterial evolution. Estimating the core genome (those genes common to all, or nearly all, strains of a species) is a key component of such analyses. The size and ...

The pneumococcus is a major human pathogen that causes morbidity and mortality worldwide. Pneumococci are normally carried asymptomatically in the nasopharynx of healthy pre-school children. Pneumococcal infections can range from acute otitis media ...