Participants were enlightened at the “Epidemiology of Pneumococcal Carriage in Southampton: What Have We Learnt since PCV Introduction?” talk organised by the Centre for Biomedical and Nutrition Research (CBNR) on 16 November 2022 at UTAR Kampar Campus.

The invited speaker was Prof Stuart C. Clarke from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom (UK). He began by sharing some statistics on respiratory tract infections (RTIs), which he said is a global problem contributing to millions of deaths each year and responsible for 17% of deaths in children. He also mentioned that RTIs can be divided into two categories, namely upper RTIs, which affect the middle ear, throat and sinuses, and lower RTIs which affect the lungs.

He further explained bacterial carriage in the respiratory tract. He defined carriage as the presence of organisms without causing disease. He noted that this is a crucial precondition to RTI, which enables person-to-person transmission. He then listed some of the common causes of RTIs.

Being identified as one of the common causes of RTIs, the speaker explained that Streptococcus pneumoniae is responsible for 14.5 million episodes of serious pneumococcal infections and 800,000 deaths per annum across the globe. Participants also learnt that this organism causes invasive pneumococcal disease and acute otitis media. Carriage is also a prerequisite for the progression of a disease. He shared that S. pneumoniae has more than 100 serotypes and is closely related to several Streptococcus species. The emergence of antibiotic resistance in its circulating strains has posed a significant challenge to its control.

Participants also learnt about the pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) which are available in several kinds, with each covering different serotypes. Prof Clarke mentioned that researchers are also looking into increasing the serotype coverage of existing PCVs and creating protein-based and even whole pneumococcal cell vaccines. He also shared the current research works in the UK which are looking into the changes to the PCV schedule, the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns, serotype 3 genomics, and retro- and prospective SARS-CoV-2 testing and genomics.

In his sharing on pneumococcal epidemiology in Malaysia, statistics showed that pneumonia was the principal cause of death for females, while ischaemic heart disease was the principal cause of death for males. He provided a further explanation on his respiratory carriage research among the Southampton population with more presentations on the data.

The talk ended with an interactive Q&A session. Present at the talk were CBNR Chairperson Dr Eddy Cheah Seong Guan and Faculty of Science Deputy Dean for R&D and Postgraduate Programmes Dr Phoon Lee Quen.