title: Serotyping and antibiotic resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated from pediatric infections in central Greece.
abstract: OBJECTIVE: To determine the distribution of serogroups/serotypes and antibiotic resistance pattern of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated from pediatric infections in central Greece. METHODS: In total, 306 S. pneumoniae strains isolated from children, aged from 18 days to 14 years (median 18 months), during a 21-month period, from different specimen sources, were studied. Susceptibility testing was carried out by the Kirby---Bauer method and by the Etest, and serotyping by the Quellung reaction. RESULTS: Of the S. pneumoniae isolates, 3.9% were highly resistant to penicillin (PR), while 17.6% were intermediately resistant (IPR). PR and IPR isolates were found to be, in general, more resistant to other antibiotics than penicillin-susceptible isolates. The PR and IPR isolates belonged to the serogroup/serotypes 19, 23, 9, 6 and 14 (in descending order of frequency). The penicillin-susceptible isolates belonged to 20 different groups/serotypes, the most common being 19, 6, 14, 9, 3, 23 and 1 (in descending order of frequency). Serogroup 23 was often found to be multiresistant. CONCLUSIONS: Resistance to penicillin in S. pneumoniae isolates is relatively low and differs according to the specimen type. All the pneumococcal serogroups/serotypes isolated from the children were found to be included in the 23-valent polysaccharide vaccine. Most of the children with a pneumococcal infection, however, were less than 2 years old and could not be protected by the existing vaccine.
authors.affiliation: Microbiology Laboratory of 'P. and A. Kyriakou' Children's Hospital.
authors.forename: Georgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kouppari
authors.forename: Anthi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zaphiropoulou
authors.forename: Mariza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tsolia
authors.forename: Nikos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Apostolopoulos
authors.forename: Vaso
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Deliyianni
authors.forename: Dimitris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kafetzis