High incidence of multidrug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae in South Korea.

Streptococcus pneumoniae was isolated from patients with bacteremia, meningitis, pneumonia, and otitis media and used to determine susceptibility to various antibiotics. Of 105 isolates, 51% to 83% were resistant to 6 antibiotics (i.e., the percentages of resistance to penicillin, ampicillin, cephalothin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, and erythromycin were 78%, 67%, 51%, 56%, 83%, and 58%, respectively). Also, 66 of the 105 isolates were multidrug resistant. Seventy-eight percent of multidrug-resistant strains were highly resistant to tetracycline (minimum inhibitory concentration [MIC] > or = 50 micrograms/ml), and 39% of multidrug-resistant strains were also highly resistant to erythromycin (MIC > or = 128 micrograms/ml). However, only 4% of the 105 isolates were resistant to cefotaxime.