2014

Jin Yang Baek, In Ho Park, Thomas Man-kit So, MK Lalitha, Nobuyuki Shimono, Rohani Md. Yasin, Celia C. Carlos, Jennifer Perera, Visanu Thamlikitkul, Po-Ren Hsueh, Pham Hung Van, Atef M. Shibl, Jae-Hoon Song and Kwan Soo Ko (2014). Prevalence and characteristics of Streptococcus pneumonia “putative serotype 6E” isolates from Asian countries. Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease 80: 334–337

The prevalence, antimicrobial susceptibility, and genotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae “putative serotype 6E” isolates from Asian countries were investigated. A total of 244 S. pneumoniae serogroup 6 isolates obtained from 11 Asian countries were included in this study. Of the 244 serogroup 6 isolates, 101 (41.4%) were typed as "putative serotype 6E," followed by serotypes 6A, 6B, 6C, and 6D (27.0, 20.1, 5.7, and 5.7%, respectively). Multilocus sequence typing revealed that clonal complex (CC) 90, including ST90 and its variants, was the most prevalent clonal group of "putative serotype 6E" isolates (n = 63; 62.4%). CC146 and CC315 were also found frequently in some of the countries. Most of the "putative serotype 6E" isolates showed very high resistance rates against cefuroxime, erythromycin, azithromycin, clarithromycin, clindamycin, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, probably due to their highly resistant to antimicrobials clone, CC90. Our results indicate that “putative serotype 6E” is prevalent in Asian countries. The clonal dissemination of "putative serotype 6E" isolates was also identified.