Bacteriological study of Neisseria strains isolated in Romania 1971-1992

1496 Neisseria strains isolated from patients and carriers from 24 counties in Romania and Bucharest in 1971-1992 were studied. Serogroup A identified in 84.5% in 1987 shows a remarkable decrease in pre- and post-epidemic periods when serogroups B and C reach rates varying from 0 to 66.6% in 1975 for B and 38.8% in 1974 for C. Non-groupable strains were more frequently isolated in inter-epidemic periods, especially in carriers. Sensitivity to antibiotics of the meningococcal strains revealed a law rate of resistant strains, the most active antibiotics in decreasing order being: penicillin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, ampicillin, rifampicin and erythromycin. Serogroup A was the most resistant to sulfamides as compared to the other serogroups, its resistance rate rising from 18.1% strains resistant to sulfathiazole in 1980-1985 to 60.7% in 1987 and to 83.3% in 1988.