Abstract

LOPARDO, Horacio A.; HERNANDEZ, Claudia  and  VIDAL, Patricia. Antimicrobial resistance in Streptococcus pyogenes: An eleven-year surveillance in a pediatric hospital from Buenos Aires. Acta bioquím. clín. latinoam. [online]. 2004, vol.38, n.2, pp.151-157. ISSN 0325-2957.

Provided its universal susceptibility to penicillin, there was little interest about antimicrobial resistance in Streptococcus pyogenes before 1989. However, the knowledge about some outbreaks of erythromycin-resistant streptococci in Japan and Australia prompted us to begin a surveillance in the hospital and then as multicentre studies involving all the country. The results of such eleven-year surveillance (1989-2000) are being presented. Penicillin-resistant or intermediately-penicillin-susceptible group A streptococci were not found. Resistance to cloramphenicol or tetracycline was not detected. Erythromycin resistance changed from 0 - 2.0% to 9.9% along this period. These rates were due to the increasing isolation of streptococci showing the M phenotype (probably active efflux), some of them showing the mefA genotype. Among isolates obtained from invasive infections erythromycin resistance was not found. Comparing the evolution of erythromycin resistance with the national consumption of macrolides, a similar trend as that published by finnish authors was appreciated.

Keywords : Streptococcus pyogenes; Group A; Erythromycin; Resistance.

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