J Korean Med Sci.  2010 Jun;25(6):817-823. 10.3346/jkms.2010.25.6.817.

Changing Molecular Epidemiology of Group B Streptococcus in Korea

• Seo YS
• Srinivasan U
• Oh KY
• Shin JH
• Chae JD
• Kim MY
• Yang JH
• Yoon HR
• Miller B
• DeBusscher J
• Foxman B
• Ki M

• KMID: 2150857
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2010.25.6.817

Abstract

The prevalence of group B streptococcus (GBS) among pregnant women and disease burdens in neonates and adults are increasing in Korea. Colonizing isolates, collected by screening pregnant women (n=196), and clinical isolates collected from clinical patients throughout Korea (n=234), were serotyped and screened for antibiotic resistance. Serotype III (29.8%) and V (27.7%) predominated, followed by Ia (17.0%). Antibiotic resistance was higher among clinical than colonizing isolates for erythromycin (35.1% and 26.9%; P=0.10) and for clindamycin (49.4% and 42.1%; P=0.17). erm(B) occurred in 91.9% of erythromycin resistant isolates, and 84.0% of isolates resistant to clindamycin. Only five isolates (4.2%) resistant to erythromycin were susceptible to clindamycin; by contrast, and unique to Korea, 34% of isolates resistant to clindamycin were erythromycin susceptible. Among these 60 erythromycin-susceptible & clindamycin-resistant isolates, 88% was serotype III, and lnu(B) was found in 89% of strains. Four fifths of the serotype V isolates were resistant to both erythromycin and clindamycin. Further characterization of the genetic assembly of these resistance conferring genes, erm(B) and lnu(B), will be useful to establish the clonal lineages of multiple resistance genes carrying strains.

Keyword

Drug Resistance, Microbial; Genotype; Pregnant Women; Streptococcus Agalactiae; Serotyping

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Schematic diagram for study isolates collected from Korea (2004 to 2007).

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  Fig. 2 Frequency of antibiotic resistance among group B streptococcus isolates (n=376) collected from Korea (2004 to 2007). *P=0.17, †P=0.10, ‡P=0.06. P values were obtained by chi-square test. All isolates were susceptible to ampicillin, penicillin G, and vancomycin.

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