kjcm Korean Journal of Clinical Microbiology Korean J Clin Microbiol 1229-0025 Korean Journal of Clinical Microbiology 10.5145/kjcm.2008.11.1.69 kjcm-11-69 Original Article Survey of Antimicrobial Resistance of Pharyngeal α-Hemolytic Streptococci among School Children KohEun-Ha KimSunjoo Department of Laboratory Medicine, Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, Jinju, Korea Correspondence: Sunjoo Kim, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, 90, Chilam-dong, Jinju 660-702, Korea. (Tel) 82-55-750-8239, (Fax) 82-55-762-2696, (E-mail) sjkim8239@hanmail.net 042008 20042008 111 6970 17012008 18032008 Copyright © 2008 Korean Journal of Clinical Microbiology 2008 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract

α-hemolytic streptococci (AHS) are common normal oropharyngeal flora that can transfer antibiotic-resistance genes to Streptococcus pneumoniae. Reports on antibiotic resistance in AHS from throats are rare in Korea. A total of 333 healthy school children were subjected to recovery of AHS from the throat, and antibiotic susceptibility tests were screened with the disk diffusion method. The rate of resistance to er-ythromycin was 22.2%, to clindamycin 12.0%, and to cefotaxime 3.0%. Whereas the resistance rate of S. pneumoniae to erythromycin exceeds 70% in Korea, pharyngeal AHS showed low resistance rates.

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Antibiotic susceptibilities (%) of 333 isolates of α-hemolytic streptococci

  Erythromycin Clinda-mycin Tetra-cycline Cefota-xime Chloram-phenicol
R 22.2 12.0 45.0 3.0 1.5
I 7.8 0.3 0.9 0 0
S 70.0 87.7 54.1 97.0 98.5

Abbreviations: R, resistant; I, intermediate resistance; S, susceptible.