Changing Epidemiology of Pathogenic Bacteria Over the Past 20 Years in Korea

The epidemiology of pathogenic bacteria varies according to the socioeconomic status and antimicrobial resistance status. However, longitudinal epidemiological studies to evaluate the changes in species distribution and antimicrobial susceptibility of pathogenic bacteria nationwide are lacking. We retrospectively investigated the nationwide trends in species distribution and antimicrobial susceptibility of pathogenic bacteria over the last 20 years in Korea.

From 1997 to 2016, annual cumulative antimicrobial susceptibility and species distribution data were collected from 12 university hospitals in five provinces and four metropolitan cities in South Korea.

The prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus was the highest (13.1%) until 2012 but decreased to 10.3% in 2016, consistent with the decrease in oxacillin resistance from 76.1% in 2008 to 62.5% in 2016. While the cefotaxime resistance of Escherichia coli increased from 9.0% in 1997 to 34.2% in 2016, E. coli became the most common species since 2013, accounting for 14.5% of all isolates in 2016. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii rose to third and fifth places in 2008 and 2010, respectively, while imipenem resistance increased from 13.9% to 30.8% and 0.7% to 73.5% during the study period, respectively. Streptococcus agalactiae became the most common pathogenic streptococcal species in 2016, as the prevalence of Streptococcus pneumoniae decreased since 2010. During the same period, pneumococcal penicillin susceptibility decreased to 79.0%, and levofloxacin susceptibility of S. agalactiae decreased to 77.1% in 2016.

The epidemiology of pathogenic bacteria has changed significantly over the past 20 years according to trends in antimicrobial resistance in Korea. Efforts to confine antimicrobial resistance would change the epidemiology of pathogenic bacteria and, consequently, the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases.