Epidemiological characterization of Streptococcus pyogenes isolated from patients with multiple onsets of pharyngitis

Abstract

Streptococcus pyogenes causes a broad spectrum of acute infections and is the bacterium most frequently isolated from patients with pharyngitis. A number of antibiotics including penicillin have been shown to be effective, although antibiotic treatment failure in cases of streptococcal pharyngitis have been reported. Herein, we aimed to elucidate the features of recurrent strains using clinical isolates. Ninety-three S. pyogenes organisms were obtained from Japanese patients with recurrent pharyngitis. Following genetic characterization, M-type isolates from patients with recurrent pharyngitis differed from those obtained at initial onset in 11 of 49 episodes, and pulsed field gel electrophoresis analysis showed different patterns in those cases. Additionally, spe genotyping revealed that the Spe type of the strains obtained at secondary onset corresponded with those from the initial onset in 22 cases. Furthermore, antibiotic susceptibility testing revealed that more than half of the strains were resistant to macrolides and lincosamides, which was a much greater ratio as compared with the strains obtained from initial onsets in previous studies. Our results suggest that recurrence and reinfection are often confused during the diagnosis of repetitive and persistent streptococcal pharyngitis. Moreover, the present S. pyogenes organisms were less susceptible to antibiotics, which raises caution about their appropriate use in clinical practice.

Systematic research to overcome newly emerged multidrug‐resistant bacteria

“…It is believed that the Streptococcus pyogenes , a kind of group A streptococci, is uniformly susceptible to penicillin. However, in a paper reporting the epidemiological characteristics of S. pyogenes recovered from patients with multiple onsets of pharyngitis, two S. pyogenes isolates were shown to be highly resistant to penicillin G (MIC, 2 μg/ml) 121 . If such penicillin‐resistant S. pyogenes emerged, it would become a serious clinical problem, and therefore, we carefully checked the penicillin MICs for 256 clinical isolates of S. pyogenes using the agar dilution method in accordance with the recommendation of the CLSI.…”

Long-term survival of salivary streptococci on dental devices made of ethylene vinyl acetate

“…Nine primer sets was used for the detection of oral streptococci, including Streptococcus mitis , Streptococcus salivarius , Streptococcus sanguinis , Streptococcus oralis , Streptococcus gordonii, Streptococcus mutans , Streptococcus sobrinus , Streptococcus pyogenes and Streptococcus pneumoniae , as previously described. 4,5,6,7 The PCR products were stained with ethidium bromide and analyzed using 1.5% agarose gel electrophoresis.…”

Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Multiple Pathways of <i>Lobelia chinensis</i> in Inhibiting <i>Streptococcus pyogenes</i>

“…In the past few decades, penicillin has been used as the first-line drug for GAS infections in most parts of the world and there is no better choice. However, the study of penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pyogenes is rapidly and world-widely reported [6,7]. Therefore, more effects are needed to find new drugs for treatment of GAS infections.…”