South Africa: Bacteria in airway shapes air pollution health risk

Air pollution leads to different risk of bacterial pneumonia, sepsis, and meningitis, depending on the subtype of bacteria a person has, new research suggests. The study from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, and collaborators, suggests that the subtype of the bacteria, Streptococcus pneumoniae (S. pneumoniae), together with air pollution exposure, impacts the rate and timing of invasive disease. With some strains linked to immediate infection after air pollution exposure, and some taking several weeks.

S. pneumoniae is found in the respiratory microbiome, the collection of microbes that live in the human nose and throat, in almost 20 per cent of adults globally1. While many adults and children carry the bacteria without any symptoms, when S. pneumoniae gets into the lower respiratory tract or bloodstream, it can lead to invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD).