Prevalence of Pharyngeal Pneumococcal Carriers and Succeptibility Patterns among Children of Day Care Centers in Yazd District,Iran

Abstract

Introduction: Streptococcus pneumoniae is one of the most important causes of pneumonia, meningitis and septicemia. Decades after successful treatment of this infection with penicillin, frequency of penicillin resistance is reportedly on the rise throughout the world. This cross sectional study was designed in Yazd to determine the prevalence of pneumococcal pharyngeal carriers and its succeptibility pattern in children of day care centers. Method & materials : Two hundred children were selected randomly from 10 day care centers and pharyngeal swabs were collected and cultured in February, 2002. Results :51% of our study sample were boys and 49% were girls. Their age range was between 7 and 65 months. Prevalence of pharyngeal carriers was 37.5%. The rate of resistance detected was as follows: 50% to penicillin, 62.5% to erythromycin and TMP,SMX, 30.6% to tetracycline, 15.3 % to cephalothin, 5.6% to ceftizoxime and 4.2% to ciprofloxacin. Conclusion: We conclude that penicillin is not the drug of choice in invasive pneumococcal infections in Yazd and a third gereration cephalosporin should be used instead as the first line of treatment while awaiting the culture and sensitivity results.

Keywords

• Prevalence
• pharyngeal carriers
• pneumococci succeptibility pattern