Lakhasly

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major bacterial pathogen causing severe illnesses like meningitis, sepsis, and pneumonia, resulting in over 150 million cases and 1.9 million deaths annually [1]. While invasive diseases are serious, pneumococcal conjunctivitis and otitis media are even more common. Despite being part of the normal human nasopharyngeal flora, with carriage lasting days to months [2,3], and typically involving different capsular types in successive episodes, invasive disease can develop within weeks of carriage [2]. Recent research focuses on...

Background
Streptococcus pneumoniae is one of the main bacterial
pathogens causing acute invasive disease, including
meningitis, sepsis and community acquired pneumonia.
Pneumonia, of which the pneumococcus is the leading
cause, still accounts worldwide for over 150 million
clinical episodes yearly, which contribute to approximately 1.9 million deaths [1]. Even more frequent are
non-invasive pneumococcal acute conjunctivitis and
otitis media. Pneumococci are also part of the normal
flora of humans, as they colonise the nasopharynx soon
after birth and carriage is reported to be self limited to
periods from few days to few months [2,3]. Successive
carriage episodes are generally due to strains of different
capsular types. Progression to invasive disease occurs
within the first weeks of carriage [2]. Recently, interest