Persistence of Pneumococcal Carriage among Older Adults in the Community despite COVID-19 Mitigation Measures
Anne L. Wyllie, Sidiya Mbodj, Darani A. Thammavongsa, Maikel S. Hislop, Devyn Yolda-Carr, Pari Waghela, Maura Nakahata, Anne E. Stahlfeld, Noel Vega, Anna York, Orchid M. Allicock, Geisa Wilkins, Andrea Ouyang, Laura Siqueiros, Yvette Strong, Kelly Anastasio, Ronika Alexander-Parrish, Adriano Arguedas, Bradford D. Gessner, Daniel M. Weinberger
Abstract
Carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) in the upper respiratory tract is considered a prerequisite to invasive pneumococcal disease. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, markedly lower rates of invasive pneumococcal disease were reported worldwide. Despite this, by testing saliva samples with PCR, we found that older adults continued to carry pneumococcus at pre-pandemic levels. Importantly, this study was conducted during a period when transmission mitigation measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic were in place. However, our observations are in line with reports from Israel and Belgium where carriage was also found to persist in children. In line with this, we observed that carriage prevalence was particularly high among the older adults in our study who maintained contact with school-aged children.