We quantified antibiotic resistance genes before and after short antibiotic courses in nasopharyngeal specimens from ambulatory children. Carriage of certain bacteria and resistance genes was common before antibiotics. After antibiotics, we observed substantial reductions in pneumococcal and Staphylococcus aureus carriage and rapid expansion in the abundance of certain resistance genes.
Keywords: Pneumococcus; Staphylococcus; acute respiratory illness; antibiotic resistance; antibiotics; children.
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America.