A STUDY ON BACTERIAL ETIOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD PNEUMONIA BY SEROLOGICAL ANTIBODIES DETECTION AND CULTURE IN HEFEI, CHINA

Wang YT¹, Yang YH², Hu YW¹, Wang YJ², Peltola H³, Leboulleux D⁴, Leinonen M⁵

¹ The First Hospital Affiliated to Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China

² Beijing Children’s Hospital, Beijing, China

³ HUCH Hospital for Children and Adolescents, Helsinki, Finland

⁴ Aventis Pasteur, Lyon, France

⁵ National Public Health Institute, Oulu, Finland

Objective: To disclose the incidence of Streptococus pneumoniae (SP), Haemophilus influenzae (HI), Branhamella catarrhalis (BC), Chlamydia pneumonia (CP) and Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) in pediatric community-acquired pneumonia in Hefei, China.

Methods: The Enzyme immunoassay (EIA) was performed to detect anti-non-capsulated HI antibody (Hi-Ab), anti-HI type-b (Hib) capsular polysaccharide antibody (HibO-Ab) and whole cell antibody (HibW-Ab), anti-SP pneumolysin antibody (Ply-Ab) and C-polysaccharide antibody (CPs-Ab), circulating pneumococcal immune complexes (IC) Ply-Ab (PlyIC), CPS-Ab (CPsIC) and pneumococcal surface protein A antibody (PsaIC), anti-BC antibody (B.cat-Ab) and anti-CP antibody (CP-IgG,IgM) from paired sera in 53 cases of hospital-treated children with pneumonia. At the same time, blood cultures were done in 53 cases and anti-MP antibodies (Mp-IgG,IgM) were detected in 42 cases by EIA as well.

Results: The evidence of bacterial infection was obtained in 32 (60.4%) cases of the 53 pneumonia children, of which SP was the most common agent (11 cases; 20.8%), followed by CP (10; 18.9%), HI (9; 17.0%; of which Hib was 7 cases), MP (7/42;16.7%), BC (5; 9.4%) by serologic assays. Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Group D streptococcus were cultured in only one case (1.9%) respectively. More than one specific bacterial co-infection was found in 16 patients (30.2%).

Conclusion: Bacterial pneumonia in children is still very common in Hefei, of which SP was the most common agent.

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