title: Molecular epidemiology of penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae colonizing children with community-acquired pneumonia and children attending day-care centres in Fortaleza, Brazil.
abstract: To study clonal diversity of penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, 161 randomly selected isolates with reduced susceptibility to penicillin, collected from the nasopharynx of children under 5 years of age with community-acquired pneumonia and healthy controls from public day-care and immunization centres in Fortaleza, Brazil, were characterized by microbiological and serological techniques and automated ribotyping. Also included were 44 randomly selected penicillin-susceptible strains and three international reference strains. With automated ribotyping 75 ribopatterns were observed: 50 ribogroups were unique and 25 ribogroups were represented by two or more isolates. Genetic diversity was extensive but some degree of genetic homogeneity was found in strains from children with pneumonia, strains from children in day-care centres, isolates with reduced susceptibility to penicillin and isolates expressing 'paediatric' serogroups. Fourteen (56%) clusters contained both isolates with reduced penicillin susceptibility and penicillin-susceptible isolates, suggesting emergence of penicillin resistance. In general, there was a good correlation between ribogroups and serogroups, but 12 (48%) clusters contained isolates with alternative serogroups. Isolates with such alternative serogroups were more often encountered in penicillin-susceptible strains (41%) than in strains with reduced susceptibility to penicillin (7%). Thirty-eight (19%) isolates (including seven penicillin-susceptible strains) showed ribotypes indistinguishable from those of two international epidemic clones of S. pneumoniae: ribogroup 54-S-1 (15 isolates) with a ribopattern characteristic of the 23F multiresistant 'Spanish/USA' clone and ribogroup 74-S-3 (23 isolates) with a pattern similar to that of the 6B multiresistant 'Spanish' clone.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, St Lucas Andreas Hospital, Amsterdam, PO Box 9243, 1006 AE, The Netherlands. m.j.wolf@amc.uva.nl
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Rey
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brisse
authors.forename: L B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Moreira
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Milatovic
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fleer
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Roord
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Verhoef
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002656:Child Day Care Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009305:Nasopharynx / Q000382:microbiology; D010403:Penicillin Resistance / Q000235:genetics*; D011018:Pneumonia, Pneumococcal / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D012703:Serotyping; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics*