Pneumococcal serotype replacement is an important issue after the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) in children. After the introduction of 13-valent PCV, the incidence of invasive pneumococcal diseases (IPD) caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 12F (Sp12F) have increased in some countries; however, an outbreak of Sp12F has not reported in the post-13-valent PCV era. We experienced a local outbreak of Sp12F during March through May 2016 in Tsuruoka city, Japan after the introduction of 13-valent PCV in 2013. The IPD patients were two children and seven adults, three of whom died with a rapid disease progress. Although the clear transmission route was not determined, eight of the nine patients (89%) had close contact with children, which suggests that transmitted colonisation of Sp12F among children and adults might be the source of transmission. Continuous monitoring of IPDs, along with the determination of pneumococcal serotypes, is warranted in the post–13-valent PCV era. New IPD control strategies may be needed if this fatal outbreak continues to occur.

We search for theorems that, given a ${{C}_{i}}$-field $K$ and a subfield $k$ of $K$, allow us to conclude that $k$ is a ${{C}_{j}}$ -field for some $j$. We give appropriate theorems in the case $\text{case }K=k\left( t \right)$ and $K=k\left( \left( t \right) \right)$. We then consider the more difficult case where $K/k$ is an algebraic extension. Here we are able to prove some results, and make conjectures. We also point out the connection between these questions and Lang's conjecture on nonreal function fields over a real closed field.

In this article we examine conditions for the appearance or nonappearance of the two extra-special 2-groups of order 32 as Galois groups over a field F of characteristic not 2. The groups in question are the central products DD of two dihedral groups of order 8, and DQ of a dihedral group with the quaternion group, obtained by identifying the central elements of order 2 in each factor group. It is shown that the realizability of each of these groups as Galois groups over F implies the realizability of other 2-groups (which are not their quotient groups), and in turn that realizability of certain other 2-groups implies the realizability of DD and DQ. We conclude by providing an explicit construction of field extensions with Galois group DD.