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Published on: April 28, 2014

High prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among clinical Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates in Asia (an ANSORP

Jae-Hoon Song1, Sook-In Jung, Kwan Soo Ko

  • 1Division of Infectious Diseases, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Asian-Pacific Research Foundation for Infectious Diseases, 50 Il-won dong, Kangnam-ku, Seoul 135-710, Korea. jhsong@smc.samsung.co.kr

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
|May 25, 2004
PubMed

Insights

Antimicrobial resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae is alarmingly high across Asia. Penicillin resistance exceeded 50% in many countries, with specific clones contributing to this rise.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Public Health

Background:

  • Streptococcus pneumoniae causes severe pneumococcal diseases globally.
  • Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a significant threat to effective treatment.
  • Surveillance of AMR in Asia is crucial due to high population density and varying healthcare access.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To assess the in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility of clinical Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates across multiple Asian countries.
  • To identify trends and prevalence of resistance to key antimicrobial agents.
  • To investigate potential drivers of increasing antimicrobial resistance.

Main Methods:

  • Collection of 685 clinical S. pneumoniae isolates from 14 centers in 11 Asian countries (2000-2001).
  • Determination of in vitro susceptibilities to 14 antimicrobial agents using broth microdilution.
  • Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) profiling and Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) determination.
  • Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) to identify prevalent clones.

Main Results:

  • Over 52% of isolates were not susceptible to penicillin; 29.4% were resistant (MICs ≥ 2 mg/liter).
  • High rates of erythromycin resistance were observed, particularly in Vietnam (92.1%) and Taiwan (86%).
  • Specific clones, Taiwan(19F) and Spain(23F), were identified as potential drivers of increasing AMR.

Conclusions:

  • Significant increases in antimicrobial resistance prevalence and levels were documented among S. pneumoniae isolates in many Asian countries.
  • Resistance rates in this study are among the highest reported globally.
  • Urgent public health strategies are needed to combat the escalating antimicrobial resistance crisis in the region.

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