Turnover of nontypable Haemophilus influenzae in the nasopharynges of healthy children

Abstract

The nasopharyngeal Haemophilus influenzae flora of healthy children in a day care center was analyzed by repeated sampling during 4 winter months. The average carrier rate was 39%, but 74% of the children became colonized at some time during the study. The H. influenzae isolates were identified by capsular type, biotype, and multilocus enzyme electrophoresis. The turnover of the flora in individual children and in the day-care group was characterized. Four patterns of colonization were defined among the 38 children and 49 H. influenzae strains. Depending on the persistence in the group, the strains were designated as endemic, i.e., shared between several children on several occasions, or as epidemic, i.e., occurring only once but in several children. The individual hosts had two patterns; resident strains persisted for 2 weeks or more, and transient strains showed no evidence of persistence. The results suggest that there is considerable sharing of certain nontypable H. influenzae among healthy children in day care, whereas other strains remain restricted to a single host. The properties of host and bacteria determining these patterns remain to be defined.