Resistance patterns of Streptococcus pneumoniae from children in central Italy.
Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from children aged 3-5 years in central Italy who were attending day-care centres or hospital outpatient clinics. One hundred and twenty-one strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated were tested for susceptibility to penicillin, cefotaxime, erythromycin, clindamycin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol and cotrimoxazole. A high prevalence of penicillin-resistant (14%), erythromycin-resistant (60%) and multiply resistant strains (53%) were found. An unusual finding was that 49 of the 64 (76.6%) multiply resistant strains were penicillin-susceptible, 28 serogroup 6 strains also being resistant to the other antibiotics tested. Such strains have not previously been reported from Italy but have the same features as strains recently found in child carriers in the eastern Mediterranean area.
Department of Infectious Diseases, La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
M P
MP
Ronchetti
F
F
Guglielmi
L
L
Latini
R
R
Merolla
G
G
Lorusso
S
S
Bajaksouzian
M P
MP
Villa
S
S
Catania
M R
MR
Jacobs
R
R
Ronchetti
D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002353:Carrier State / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D002656:Child Day Care Centers; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002702:Chloramphenicol Resistance; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D010403:Penicillin Resistance; D015995:Prevalence; D012703:Serotyping; D013290:Streptococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000145:classification / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013753:Tetracycline Resistance
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents