DISTRIBUTION OF CAPSULAR TYPES AND ANTIBIOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY OF INVASIVE STREPTOCOCCUS-PNEUMONIAE ISOLATED FROM ABORIGINES IN CENTRAL AUSTRALIA

Streptococcus pneumoniae strains isolated from 203 episodes of invasiv e disease in central Australian Ab-origines were studied. Capsular typ es from children aged 0 to 4 years (n = 89) belonged most commonly to types 14, 6B, 9V, 4, 18C, and 19F, which together accounted from 67% o f the pediatric strains. In adults (n = 98), types 1, 7F, 3, 4, 12F, a nd 8 contributed 68% of the isolates. Of 114 pneumococci from patients 5 years and older, 102 (89.5%) were types represented in the 23-valen t pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine. The MICs of five antibiotics we re determined for 201 strains by using the E-Test (AB Biodisk). No chl oramphenicol or ceftriaxone resistance was found, but 46 strains (22.9 %) showed diminished susceptibility to one or more of the drugs penici llin, erythromycin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. Penicillin resi stance occurred in 15.4% of all isolates tested but only within the in termediate range (0.1 to 1.0 mu g/ml). Resistance to trimethoprim-sulf amethoxazole affected 13.9% of the pneumococci tested. All type 23F an d most type 19F organisms were resistant to one or more antibiotics. R esistance was significantly more common in pediatric isolates than in those from adults (chi(1)(2) = 14.1; P < 0.001).