Carriage of antibiotic-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae in Greek infantsand toddlers

The prevalence, resistance patterns and serotypes of antibiotic-resistant S treptococcus pneumoniae strains recovered from Greek carriers under 24 mont hs of age were studied. From February 1997 to April 1998, nasopharyngeal cu ltures were performed in 1269 children (ages 2-23 months, median 11 months) living in various areas of central and southern Greece, Resistance (includ ing both intermediate and resistant isolates) to one or more antimicrobial agents was found in 132 of the 421 (31%) Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates, as follows: penicillin, 9% intermediate, 7.6% resistant: cefotaxime, 5.2% intermediate. 0.5% resistant: erythromycin, 0.7% intermediate, 18.1% resist ant: clindamycin, 0.2% intermediate, 12.4% resistant, tetracycline, 0.7% in termediate, 16.4% resistant; chloramphenicol, 12.4% resistant; and trimetho prim-sulfamethoxazole, 3.8% intermediate, 14.3% resistant. The MICs of peni cillin for 66% of the penicillin-nonsusceptible pneumococci were 11 mu g/ml . Multidrug resistance was found in 64% of penicillin-nonsusceptible and 37 % of penicillin-susceptible strains. Sixty-two percent of the penicillin-su sceptible, multidrug-resistant strains belonged to serotype 6B and were res istant to all five non-beta-lactam agents tested. This notable serotype 6B resistance pattern was described for the first rime in a previous study per formed from December 1995 to February 1996 in the city of Patras, southwest ern Greece. Seventy-two percent of antibiotic-resistant isolates belonged t o serotypes 6B, 9V, 14, 18C, 19F and 23F. These results document the spread of resistant pneumococcal strains in central and southern Greece, many of which are multidrug resistant.