Surveillance on the resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella catarrhalis isolated from children in Beijing in 2004

Objective Monitoring the antimicrobial resistance of respiratory pathogens including Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis isolated from children in Beijing in 2004. Methods Susceptibility testing of the antibacterials was determined at microbiological laboratory using NCCLS (M100-S12) with E-test and K-B disk methods. Results The study showed that the prevalence of penicillin-nonsusceptible, cefaclor-nonsusceptible, cefuroxime-nonsusceptible and ceftriaxone-nonsusceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated were 32.9%,25.0%, 26.4%, and 5.7%, respectively. The nonsuceptibility of Streptococcus pneumoniae to macrolides (e.g. erythromycin,azithromy-cin, and clindamycin) was more than 90%. The resistance rate of Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella catarrhalis to ampicillin were 14.3% and 56.6%,and resistance rate to other β-lactams were low. Conclusions Respiratory tract pathogens are becoming increasingly resistant to antimicrobial agents. Ongoing surveillance of antimicrobial activity was essential because initial therapy for respiratory tract infections was largely empirically.