Antibiotic susceptibility patterns of Streptococcus pneumoniae in china and comparison of MICs by agar dilution and...

Beta-lactam resistance by Streptococcus pneumoniae is becoming a significant threat to public health worldwide. However, data concerning antibiotic susceptibility patterns in China have not been published. In this study, a total of 79 clinical isolates and 244 nasopharyngeal isolates of S. pneumoniae were recovered between June and November 1997 in Beijing. The agreement between the MICs (+/-1 log2 dilution) of penicillin and ceftriaxone obtained by the agar dilution and E-test methods for the 79 clinical strains was very good (97.5 and 93.7%, respectively). Of these 79 strains, 9 (11.4%) were intermediate and 2 (2.5%) were resistant to penicillin. Of the 244 nasopharyngeal strains, 32 (13.1%) were intermediate and 3 (1. 2%) were resistant to penicillin. The total of 277 penicillin-susceptible clinical and nasopharyngeal isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae were 100% susceptible to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, cefuroxime, ceftriaxone, and cefotaxime. In the 35 penicillin-intermediate and -resistant nasopharyngeal strains, elevated MICs of amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, cefuroxime, ceftriaxone, and cefotaxime were seen for