African Journal of
Microbiology Research

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Microbiol. Res.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1996-0808
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJMR
  • Start Year: 2007
  • Published Articles: 5236

Full Length Research Paper

Antimicrobial resistance, serotypes and genotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates associated with ocular infection in China

Qunhua Ying1, Jianjun Zhang1, Li Yang1, Jinlong Ding1, Xiaohua Song1, Wei Du1, Yingying Ma1 and Fangyou Yu2*        
1Department of Clinical Laboratory, Shaoxing Women and Children’s Hospital, Shaoxing. 312000, China. 2Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou.325000, China.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 30 November 2011
  •  Published: 09 January 2012

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.