About the Authors

Eric S. Donkor

Affiliations Department of Pathogen Molecular Biology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom, Department of Microbiology, University of Ghana Medical School, Accra, Ghana

Richard A. Adegbola

Affiliation GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines, Wavre, Belgium

Brendan W. Wren

Affiliation Department of Pathogen Molecular Biology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom

Martin Antonio

mantonio@mrc.gm

Affiliation Vaccinology Theme, Medical Research Council, Fajara, The Gambia

Competing Interests

Richard A. Adegbola is an employee of GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines in Belgium and received previous grant awards for pneumococcal carriage studies whilst working as an employee of the UK MRC Unit in The Gambia. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The other authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Author Contributions

Gave approval for publication of the manuscript: ESD MA RAA BWW. Conceived and designed the experiments: MA RAA BWW. Performed the experiments: ESD. Analyzed the data: ESD. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MA RAA BWW. Wrote the paper: ESD MA RAA BWW.