Mycoplasma pneumoniae: Bacterial genetic variation and colonization of the respiratory tract of children

E. Spuesens

M. pneumoniae is regarded as a common cause of community acquired pneumonia. We posed the hypothesis that M. pneumoniae is able to colonize the human respiratory tract and, assuming that our hypothesis could be confirmed, we also set out to study whether possible asymptomatic carriage could be distinguished from infection. In the first part the findings of bacterial genetic variation are described. We describe that M. pneumoniae subtype-1 and subtype-2 represent genetically distinct lineages with a high potential for variation by homologous DNA recombination. The second part describes the prevalence of M. pneumoniae detected by PCR, which is just as high in asymptomatic children as in symptomatic children but changes over time and season. The strains found in asymptomatic and symptomatic children do not seem to differ genetically. M. pneumoniae macrolide resistant strains have not been identified in the Netherlands. Finally we discuss the consequences of our findings on M. pneumoniae colonization and bacterial genetic variation. We discuss that diagnostic tests for an alleged M. pneumoniae infection should be interpreted with caution and we question whether a presumed M. pneumoniae infection should always result in antibiotic treatment.

https://graphik-buro.nl/epub/emielspuesens/