Full Length Research Paper
Abstract
Streptococcus pneumoniae is an important pathogen causing ocular infections, such as ophthalmia, dacrocystitis, conjunctivitis and corneitis. A total of 39 S. pneumoniae isolates were isolated from the eyes of pediatric patients with ocular infection aged from 0 to 2 years old in a Chinese children’s hospital. All tested isolates with penicillin minimum inhibitory concentration values ranging from ≤ 0.06 to 2.0 μg/ml were susceptible to penicillin and vancomycin. The resistance rates of the S. pneumoniae isolates to erythromycin, clindamycin, tetracycline and ttrimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole were 84.6, 84.6, 82.1 and 74.4%, respectively. While resistance rates of the tested isolates to rifampicin and chloramphenicol were 2.6 and 10.3%, respectively. 76.9% of the tested isolates were multi-resistant to antimicrobials tested. Twelve different serotypes were identified among 39 S. pneumoniae isolates, in which serogroup 19, 14 and 8 accounted for 8, 4 and 3 isolates, respectively. However, serogroup 6, 23, 15 and 20 accounted for only 2 isolates, respectively. Eleven isolates were non-serotypeable (NT). The remaining 5 isolates belonged to serogroup 9, 18, 11, 12 and 17, respectively. The 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) showed lower coverage (17/39, 46.2%). 17 STs were identified among selected 20 isolates, among which 3 novel STs were first found. The international resistant clone Taiwan19F-14 and Spain23F-1 were found in the present study. Taken together, S. pneumoniae isolates from the eyes of pediatric patients with ocular infection younger than 2 years old shows a genetically diverse population.
Key words: Streptococcus pneumoniae, antimicrobial resistance, serotypes, serogroups, pneumococcal vaccines, genotypes.
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