Epidemiology of invasive pneumococcal infection in Taiwan: antibiotic resistance, serogroup distribution, and ribotypes analyses.

From July, 1998, to June, 1999, pneumococcal isolates from 288 patients with invasive disease in Taiwan were serogrouped and tested for their susceptibility to various antibiotics. Automated ribotyping was used to study their molecular epidemiology. The mortality rate among those > or = 65 years was higher than those 18 or 19-64 years (p < 0.001). The total incidence of infection was significantly higher during the cooler season than the warmer season (p = 0.017). Among strains isolated from children aged < or = 18 years, 76% were not susceptible to penicillin, a rate that was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than that for adults (45%), as was the susceptibility to azithromycin, erythromycin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (p < 0.005). The most prevalent serogroup encountered in the invasive isolates was 23, followed by 6, 14, 19, and 3. Isolation of Streptococcus pneumoniae in cerebrospinal fluid was at high rate in children under 5 years (p = 0.00012). Molecular typing revealed a high degree of polymorphism among the isolates. Among serogroup 23 and 19 isolates, a high proportion had the same ribotypes, the Taiwan23F-15 and Taiwan19F-14 isolates, suggesting the circulation of a Taiwanese epidemic strain. In Taiwan, S. pneumoniae isolates should be tested for their resistance profile for children < or = 18 years old, as these are more likely to harbor high-level resistance. Control of pneumococcal infection with the 7-valent-conjugated vaccine should also be considered because it is estimated that it would cover nearly 90% of the serotypes among pediatric invasive disease.