title: Characterization of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates from India with special reference to their sequence types.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in young children and the elderly. In the present study we evaluated antimicrobial susceptibilities, serotypes, and sequence types of pneumococcal isolates recovered in New Delhi, India.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 126 clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae were investigated. They were subjected to disk diffusion susceptibility testing, broth microdilution testing, serotyping and multilocus sequence typing.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Broth microdilution assay showed that 5%, 20% and 23% of the isolates exhibited resistance to penicillin, erythromycin and ciprofloxacin, respectively. Serotypes19, 1 and 6 were more frequently isolated. Thirty per cent of the strains were comprised of serotypes 1, 3, 5, 19A and 7F, which are not included in the seven-valent vaccine. Fifty-nine isolates were typed using multilocus sequence typing. Thirty new sequence types were encountered in this study. Only one clonal complex with 4 isolates was seen; 11 clonal complexes and 96 sequence types (STs) were observed among 115 Indian isolates. Only 18 of the 96 STs were found globally, of which only 4 STs were found in many countries with larger numbers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study identifies the non-vaccine serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae circulating in India. It is important that an appropriate vaccine which covers all serotypes is used in the region.
authors: Department of Microbiology, Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, University of Delhi, Delhi, India . malini.shariff@gmail.com
authors: Malini
authors: M
authors: Shariff
authors: Jyoti
authors: J
authors: Choudhary
authors: Shazia
authors: S
authors: Zahoor
authors: Monorama
authors: M
authors: Deb
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D008875:Middle Aged; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D011008:Pneumococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D012703:Serotyping; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000145:classification* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents