Assessment of nasopharyngeal Streptococcus pneumoniae colonization does not permit discrimination between Canadian children with viral and bacterial respiratory infection: a matched-cohort cross-sectional study

BackgroundReadily-available diagnostics do not reliably discriminate between viral and bacterial pediatric uncomplicated pneumonia, both of which are common. Some have suggested that assessment of pneumococcal carriage could be used to identify those children with bacterial pneumonia. The objective of this study was to determine if nasopharyngeal pneumococcal colonization patterns differed between children with definite viral disease, definite …