Antibiotic Resistance and Serotypes of Invasive Pneumococciin the Czech Republic

Overview

Background.
Among strains of S. pneumoniae (pneumococci), isolated from blood or cerebrospinal fluid of 483patients between January 2001 and October 2003 as many as 5.2 % strains were penicillin-non-susceptible.Methods and Results. Incidence of penicillin-non-susceptible S. pneumoniae (PNSP) strains was highest in childrenof the youngest age group (12.7 %). Cefotaxim-non-susceptibility was detected in 2.7 % of strains. Pneumococcitested were resistant to co-trimoxazol (9.9 %), tetracycline (8.9 %), chloramphenicol (4.6 %), erythromycin (2.3 %),clindamycin (1.4 %), levofloxacin (0.6 %) and rifampicin (0.2 %); none of the strains was resistant to linezolid.Comparison of the results from 1996–1999 shows a permanent occurrence of invasive PNSP strains ranging about5 %. The PNSP strains were of 7 serotypes, with serotype 9V being the most frequent. The Czech collection ofinvasive pneumococcal strains is five times smaller than that of any other European country with comparablepopulations over the same period of time.Conclusions. Low incidence of invasive S. pneumoniae strains seems to be related to the underestimated significanceof blood culturing. Valid data necessary for the safety of antibiotic therapy in terms of efficacy and prevention ofresistance development cannot be obtained from some localities of the Czech Republic.

Key words:
invasive pneumococci, antibiotic resistance, serotypes.