Invasive pneumococcal infection in First Nations children in northern Alberta.

Streptococcus pneumoniae is the leading cause of invasive bacterial infection in young children. This organism causes a number of important clinical syndromes, including bacteremia without a focus, severe septicemia, meningitis, pneumonia, and septic arthritis. From January 1, 1995 to December 31, 2000, active surveillance of cases of invasive pneumococcal infection was carried out. This surveillance revealed that (1) eighteen percent of tracked cases involved First Nations children, (2) First Nations children were younger and more likely to have an underlying medical condition, and (3) the rate of penicillin non-susceptibility was higher in isolates from First Nations children. The authors propose that surveillance of invasive pneumococcal disease in First Nations children should be implemented in a larger proportion of the Immunization Monitoring Program network to provide clinical, epidemiologic and laboratory data from a larger population base.