Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance profiles of respiratory microbial flora in African children with HIV-associated chronic lung disease

Abstract

Background: HIV-associated chronic lung disease (CLD) is common among children living with HIV (CLWH) in sub-Saharan Africa, including those on antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, the pathogenesis of CLD and its possible association with microbial determinants remain poorly understood. We investigated the prevalence, and antibiotic susceptibility of Streptococcus pneumoniae (SP), Staphylococcus aureus (SA), Haemophilus influenzae (HI), and Moraxella catarrhalis (MC) among CLWH (established on ART) who had CLD (CLD+), or not (CLD-) in Zimbabwe and Malawi. Methods: Nasopharyngeal swabs (NP) and sputa were collected from CLD+ CLWH (defined as forced-expiratory volume per second z-score