Publication . Pessoa, Delphine; Hoti, Fabian; Syrjänen, Ritva; Sá-Leão, Raquel; Kaijalainen, Tarja; Gomes, M Gabriela M; Auranen, Kari
Day-care centre (DCC) attendees play a central role in maintaining the circulation of Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) in the population. The prevalence of pneumococcal carriage is highest in DCC attendees but varies across countries and is found to be consistently lower in Finland than in Portugal. We compared key parameters underlying pneumococcal transmission in DCCs to understand which of these contributed to the observed differences in carriage prevalence.