Invasive bacterial disease due to Streptococcus pneumoniae and other respiratory pathogens exhibits striking seasonality in its occurrence [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] . Pneumococcal infections are a common cause of severe, community-acquired illnesses, including community-acquired pneumonia requiring hospitalization, bacteremia, and meningitis [8] . While the introduction of antibiotics dramatically reduced the case fatality rate (CFR) for pneumococcal disease, the current CFR for bacteremic pneumococcal disease is still estimated at 5-10% in the United States, and may be twice as high among the elderly and in cases of meningitis [9, 10] . The emergence of antimicrobial resistance to beta-lactam agents, macrolides, and other antibiotic classes is an important clinical concern [11] . Although the introduction of conjugate pneumococcal vaccines has been associated with a reduction in disease incidence [12] , the recent increase in invasive infection by non-vaccine serotypes [13] , which may be highly resistant to commonly-used antimicrobials [14] , suggests that this microorganism will persist in challenging both the medical and public health communities.