[Pneumococcal carriage in mothers and children of the Panare Amerindians from the State of Bolivar, Venezuela].

In North America, the indigenous groups have been identified as a population with increased risk of pneumococcal colonization and pneumococcal invasive disease. However, little information is available from South American natives. In the present study we evaluated the nasopharyngeal carriage and serotype distribution of Streptococcus pneumoniae in mothers and children of the Panare people from Venezuela. In May 2008, in 8 distinct geographically isolated communities, 148 nasopharyngeal samples were obtained from 64 healthy mothers and 84 healthy Panare children under 5 years of age. S. pneumoniae was isolated and identified by standard techniques. Strains were typified by multiplex PCR and resistance patterns were determined by the disk diffusion method. A total of 65 strains were isolated; 11% of the mothers and 69% of the children carried S. pneumoniae. Serotypes 6B (48%), 33F (21,5%), 6A (6%), 19A (3,1%) and 23F (1,5%) were the most predominant. Of the 6 colonized mother-child pairs, 3 pairs (2 with 6B), were colonized with the same serotype. All strains were sensitive to penicillin and 13,7% were resistant to macrolides. The high colonization rates in the Panare people suggest that the children are at increased risk of pneumococcal invasive disease and could benefit from vaccination. Four conjugate vaccine serotypes (6B, 6A, 19A and 23F) representing 58 % of all strains were present in the population at the moment of sampling. Resistance to antibiotics is (still) not a problem.