Whole-Genome Sequence Analysis of Streptococcus pneumoniae Strains That Cause Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia Infections.

Streptococcus pneumoniae colonizes the nasopharyngeal mucus in healthy individuals and can cause otitis media, pneumonia, and invasive pneumococcal diseases. In this study, we analyzed S. pneumoniae strains that caused 19 pneumonia episodes in long-term inpatients with severe underlying disease in a hospital during a period of 14 months (from January 2014 to February 2015). Serotyping and whole-genome sequencing analyses revealed that 18 of the 19 pneumonia cases were caused by S. pneumoniae strains belonging to 3 genetically distinct groups: clonal complex 9999 (CC9999), sequence type 282 (ST282), and ST166. The CC9999 and ST282 strains appeared to have emerged separately by a capsule switch from the pandemic PMEN 1 strain (Spain23F-ST81). After all the long-term inpatients were inoculated with the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine, no other nosocomial pneumonia infections occurred until March 2016.