16S rRNA survey of nasopharyngeal, adenoid and middle ear bacteria in Indigenous Australian children with otitis media. human metagenome

Indigenous Australian children have a high prevalence of otitis media with effusion (OME) and associated conductive hearing loss. Only three microbiological studies of middle ear fluid (MEF) from Indigenous Australian children with OME have been reported, all reliant on culture or species-specific PCR assays. The aim of this study was to characterise the middle ear, adenoid and nasopharyngeal microbiomes of Indigenous Australian children, using culture-independent 16S rRNA gene sequencing.