•Streptococcus pneumoniae is the predominant bacterial pathogen implicated in all lower respiratory tract infections

• The organism's pathogenicity is to a large extent due to its polysaccharide capsule, which also enables classification into different serotypes/serogroups

• Risk factors associated with pneumococcal pneumonia include HIV infection, defects in humoral immunity, asplenia, diabetes mellitus, cancer, high alcohol intake, smoking and the extremes of age...