Streptococcus pneumoniae from ophthalmic infections: serotype distributionand penicillin susceptibility

Streptococcus pneumoniae is one of the pathogens causing infection of the c onjunctiva and the uveal tract. The present study began with the observatio n of two ophthalmic S. pneumoniae isolates showing intermediate resistance to penicillin. Among the 25 isolates of S. pneumoniae from 617 ophthalmic s pecimens, during the period of 14 months, four were found to exhibit an int ermediate resistance to penicillin. Minimum Inhibitory Concentration values ranging from 0.125 mu g/mL to 0.25 mu g/mL was observed. No multidrug resi stant strains were isolated. Serogrouping/typing of the S. pneumoniae revea led the following serogroups/types; 6A (n = 3), 6B (n = 2), 22 (n = 3), 14 (n = 3), 23A (n = 2), and 1 each of 23B, 19A, 7B, 32, 9, 42, 21, 39, 10, 3, and 34. One strain showed cross reaction in pool 29, 35, and 47. These fin dings represent the first such observation of ophthalmic isolates from Indi a. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.