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Chlamydia pneumoniae and Mycoplasma pneumoniae in young children from China with community-acquired pneumonia.

Liu G, Talkington DF, Fields BS, Levine OS, Yang Y, Tondella ML

Respiratory Diseases Branch, Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA.

Eighty-five cases community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children 5 years or younger, confirmed by chest X-ray, and 185 age-matched control patients with diarrhea or dermatitis from the Outpatient Department at Beijing Children's Hospital were enrolled into this study. Nasopharyngeal swab specimens were obtained from all subjects. Real-time PCR-based fluorescence assays were performed for Chlamydia pneumoniae and Mycoplasma pneumoniae. A nested PCR was also run for C. pneumoniae for comparison of assays. C. pneumoniae was found in 3 (3.5%) of CAP cases and in 4 (2.1%) of controls (P = 0.51). M. pneumoniae was found in 6 (7.1%) of CAP cases and in none of the controls (P = 0.001). The agreement rate of the 2 applied PCR methods used for C. pneumoniae detection was 98.5%. Our study demonstrates that M. pneumoniae may play a significant role in CAP affecting children up to 5 years in China, whereas C. pneumoniae in nasopharyngeal specimens was not associated with CAP in this age group.

Published 9 May 2005 in Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis, 52(1): 7-14.
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