Pneumococcal colonization is rarely studied in adults, except as part of family surveys. We report the outcomes of colonization screening in healthy adults (all were nonsmokers without major comorbidities or contact with children aged
We detected pneumococcal colonization in 52 of 795 subjects, using nasal wash culture. The majority of pneumococci were nonvaccine serotypes, but we identified persistent circulation of serotypes 3, 19A, and 19F and the emergence of antimicrobial resistance in the latter years of the study.