Streptococcus pneumoniae infections continue to be an important cause of morbidity and mortality in low-and middle-income countries. Differentiating S. pneumoniae from viridans group streptococci is essential to ensure appropriate antibiotic therapy. Conventional microbial identification tests can often misidentify the two groups. We used a common pneumococcal urinary antigen test to identify S. pneumoniae that were misidentified by the VITEK 2. The performance of the test was similar to the pneumococcal latex agglutination test.
Keywords: Streptococcus pneumoniae; Streptococcus pneumoniae culture; VITEK 2 misidentification; pneumococcal antigen test; pneumococcal urinary antigen detection.