Publication date: Feb 01, 2025
Healthcare workers are at increased risk of exposure to respiratory pathogens including Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus). While little asymptomatic carriage has been reported in young-to-middle-aged adults, this may be due to nonsensitive diagnostic methods. The aim of the current study was to investigate the rates of pneumococcal carriage in a large cohort of healthcare workers, using saliva as a respiratory specimen. We evaluated pneumococcal carriage in convenience samples of saliva, self-collected from asymptomatic healthcare workers (Connecticut, USA) who were testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from 30 March to 11 June 2020. DNA extracted from the culture-enriched saliva was later tested using quantitative polymerase chain reaction for piaB, lytA, and serotype. Saliva samples were considered positive for pneumococcus when the piaB cycle threshold value was
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| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Healthcare | carriage |
| June | pandemic |
| Pneumoniae | pneumococcus |
| Polymerase | saliva |
| Young | surveillance |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | Infectious Diseases |