S. pneumoniae is the most frequent pathogen to cause AOM in this age group. Empirical treatment with amoxicillin or ceftriaxone should be considered depending on clinical suspicion of severe invasive infection.

Macrolide-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae emerged in Argentina in 1995, representing 26% of invasive infection isolates in children under 5 years old. The objectives of this study were to describe the prevalence of ermB and mefA genes in macrolide-resistant S. pneumoniae isolates from acute otitis media (AOM) and to determine their genetic relatedness. Between May 2009 and August 2010, 126 S. pneumoniae isolates from 324 otherwise healthy children with a first episode of AOM were included. Twenty six of these isolates (20.6%) were resistant to erythromycin. Most frequent serotypes were: 14 (46.2%), 6A (23.1%), 19F (7.7%) and 9V (7.7%). Twenty (76.9%) carried the mefA gene, 5 (19.2%) have the ermB gene, and 1 (3.9%) both ermB + mefA. Ten clonal types were identified, mostly related to Sweden(15A)-25/ST782 (SLV63), CloneB(6A)/ST473 and England(14)-9/ ST9. This is the first study assessing the mechanisms of macrolide resistance in pneumococci isolates from pediatric AOM in Argentina and their genetic relatedness.

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The introduction of the Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine in the immunization programs of many countries has greatly reduced this invasive disease and the carriage caused by this serotype, also increasing other capsular types and non-capsular isolations. There were 313 isolations of H. influenzae under study, which were recovered from a sterile site coming from pediatric and adult patients carrying the invasive disease. Patients were treated at 90 different hospitals belonging to the Red Nacional de Laboratorios para Meningitis e Infecciones Respiratorias Agudas Bacterianas (National Lab Network for Meningitis and Acute Bacterial Respiratory Infections) from 2005 to 2010 for the following disorders: pneumonia, 40.3% (n=126), meningitis, 30.0% (n=94) and bacteremia, 26.5% (n=83). In pediatric patients (n=279), the highest frequency of isolations corresponded to children under the age of 2 years, 74.5% (n=208). Regarding type distribution, 61.3% corresponded to non-capsular H. influenzae (n=192), 20.1% to type b (n=63), 11.2% to type a (n=35), 4.8% to type f, and 2.6% to other types. Capsular H. influenzae was predominant in meningitis whereas non-capsular H. influenzae in pneumonia and bacteremia. The biotype was determined in 306 isolations. The totality (100%) of type a (n=35) was biotype II whereas 66.7% of type b (n=63) was biotype I. Slide agglutination and PCR tests were used in 220 isolations. There was a match of 0.982 (IC: 0.92-1.00) between them. During the last year, there was a great increase in type b, showing the importance of clinical and laboratory-based surveillance of the invasive disease caused by H. influenzae.

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