Abstract
During 2012–2015, we tested respiratory specimens from patients with severe respiratory illness (SRI), patients with influenza-like illness (ILI), and controls in South Africa by real-time PCR for Mycoplasma pneumoniae, followed by culture and molecular characterization of positive samples. M. pneumoniae prevalence was 1.6% among SRI patients, 0.7% among ILI patients, and 0.2% among controls (p<0.001). Age <5 years (adjusted odd ratio 7.1; 95% CI 1.7–28.7) and HIV infection (adjusted odds ratio 23.8; 95% CI 4.1–138.2) among M. pneumonia–positive persons were associated with severe disease. The detection rate attributable to illness was 93.9% (95% CI 74.4%–98.5%) in SRI patients and 80.7% (95% CI 16.7%–95.6%) in ILI patients. The hospitalization rate was 28 cases/100,000 population. We observed the macrolide-susceptible M. pneumoniae genotype in all cases and found P1 types 1, 2, and a type 2 variant with multilocus variable number tandem repeat types 3/6/6/2, 3/5/6/2, and 4/5/7/2.
Highlights
In 1986, ≈4 million deaths were attributed to pneumonia in children
M. pneumoniae is typically characterized by typing the P1 adhesion molecule gene sequence, which distinguishes the 2 P1 types [12], or by using multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA), which is more discriminatory than P1 typing [13]
Study Population During June 2012–May 2015, we enrolled 11,391 persons, of whom 10,194 (89.5%) had specimens collected that were tested for M. pneumoniae
Summary
In 1986, ≈4 million deaths were attributed to pneumonia in children
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