{"doi":"10.1093/ofid/ofaf008","title":"Detection of Pneumococcal Carriage in Asymptomatic Healthcare Workers","abstract":"Abstract Background Healthcare workers are at increased risk of exposure to respiratory pathogens including Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus). While little asymptomatic carriage has been reported in young-to-middle-aged adults, this may be due to nonsensitive diagnostic methods. The aim of the current study was to investigate the rates of pneumococcal carriage in a large cohort of healthcare workers, using saliva as a respiratory specimen. Methods We evaluated pneumococcal carriage in convenience samples of saliva, self-collected from asymptomatic healthcare workers (Connecticut, USA) who were testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from 30 March to 11 June 2020. DNA extracted from the culture-enriched saliva was later tested using quantitative polymerase chain reaction for piaB, lytA, and serotype. Saliva samples were considered positive for pneumococcus when the piaB cycle threshold value was <40. Results Study participants were 22–74 years old (mean age, 38.5 years), 75% female, 75% white, and with occupations including registered nurses (48%), medical doctors (23%), and patient care assistants (5%). Overall, 138 of 1241 samples (11%) from 86 of 392 individuals (21%) tested piaB positive at some point during the 4-month study period, with 28 (33%) colonized individuals positive at multiple time points. Carriers reflected the overall study population. No significant demographic characteristics were associated with detection of pneumococcus. Colonized individuals primarily carried serotypes 19F (25.6%) and 3 (12.8%). Conclusions During a period of mandatory masking, we identified a cumulative pneumococcal carriage prevalence of 21% among healthcare workers. This study highlights that healthcare workers may act as unrecognized reservoirs of pneumococcus in the population. Despite long-standing pediatric immunization programs, vaccine-targeted serotypes continue to be prevalent among the adult population.","journal":"Open Forum Infectious Diseases","year":2025,"id":529700,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":7,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9565,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1409037,"name":"Raechel Davis","orcid":"0009-0000-7251-1991","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":105782,"name":"Melissa Campbell","orcid":"0000-0002-8358-7307","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":105785,"name":"Rupak Datta","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1076056,"name":"Maikel S. Hislop","orcid":"0000-0001-6887-5506","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1409515,"name":"Noel Vega","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1409516,"name":"Loren Wurst","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1012601,"name":"Devyn Yolda-Carr","orcid":"0000-0002-2326-5429","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1255466,"name":"Luke Couch","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1409517,"name":"Michael Hernandez","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":458678,"name":"Lindsay R. Grant","orcid":"0000-0002-4538-6424","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":733716,"name":"Ronika Alexander-Parrish","orcid":"0000-0003-0932-7467","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1387598,"name":"Adriano Arguedas","orcid":"0000-0002-1659-8225","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1409518,"name":"Bradford D Gessner","orcid":null,"position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":560592,"name":"Richard A. Martinello","orcid":"0000-0002-0355-9200","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":106838,"name":"Daniel M. Weinberger","orcid":"0000-0003-1178-8086","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":105767,"name":"Anne L. Wyllie","orcid":"0000-0001-6015-0279","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1409036,"name":"Pari Waghela","orcid":"0000-0002-2661-6343","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":31,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:51:01.235017Z","pmid":"39917332","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}