High Incidence of Multidrug-Resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae in South Korea

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Abstract
Streptococcus pneumoniae was isolated from patients with bacteremia, meningitis, pneumonia, and otitis media and used to determine susceptibility to various antibiotics. Of 105 isolates, 51% to 83% were resistant to 6 antibiotics (i.e., the percentages of resistance to penicillin, ampicillin, cephalothin, chloramphenicol, tet racycline, and erythromycin were 78%, 67%, 51%, 56%, 83%, and 58%, respectively). Also, 66 of the 105 isolates were multidrug resistant. Seventy-eight percent of multidrug-resistant strains were highly resistant to tetracycline (minimum inhibitory concentration [MIC] ≥50 μg/ml), and 39% of multidrug-resistant strains were also highly resistant to erythromycin (MIC ≥128 μg/ml). However, only 4% of the 105 isolates were resistant to cefotaxime.